Glossary
The vocabulary of nanotechnology, in plain words.
- Nanometre
- One billionth of a metre (10⁻⁹ m).
- Nanoscale
- Approximately 1 to 100 nanometres.
- Nanomaterial
- A material with external dimensions, or internal structure, at the nanoscale.
- Nanoparticle
- A particle with all three dimensions at the nanoscale.
- Colloid
- Fine particles dispersed evenly through another substance without settling.
- Surface-to-volume ratio
- Surface area divided by volume. It rises as objects shrink.
- Brownian motion
- The random movement of small particles struck by the molecules around them.
- Van der Waals forces
- Weak attractions between all atoms and molecules; dominant at small scales.
- Quantum confinement
- The change in a material’s electronic properties when it is smaller than the natural spread of its electrons.
- Quantum dot
- A semiconductor nanocrystal whose colour depends on its size.
- Plasmon
- A collective oscillation of electrons in a metal. It gives gold nanoparticles their red colour.
- Fullerene
- A closed cage of carbon atoms, such as C60.
- Carbon nanotube
- A cylinder of carbon atoms about a nanometre or more across.
- Graphene
- A single layer of carbon atoms in a hexagonal lattice.
- Top-down
- Making small structures by patterning or removing material from a larger piece.
- Bottom-up
- Making structures by assembling atoms or molecules.
- Self-assembly
- The spontaneous organisation of components into an ordered structure.
- Lithography
- Transferring a pattern onto a surface, usually with light; the basis of chip manufacture.
- Scanning tunnelling microscope
- An instrument that maps a conducting surface atom by atom using the current between the surface and a sharp tip.
- Atomic force microscope
- An instrument that maps any surface by the force on a sharp tip.
- Lipid nanoparticle
- A small sphere of fatty molecules used to carry drugs or RNA into cells.
- Nanotoxicology
- The study of how nanomaterials affect living things.