Nanostructure: Definition

Definition from Answers.com

A material structure assembled from a layer or cluster of atoms with size of the order of nanometers. Interest in the physics of condensed matter at size scales larger than that of atoms and smaller than that of bulk solids (mesoscopic physics) has grown rapidly since the 1970s, owing to the increasing realization that the properties of these mesoscopic atomic ensembles are different from those of conventional solids. As a consequence, interest in artificially assembling materials from nanometer-sized building blocks arose from discoveries that by controlling the sizes in the range of 1–100 nm and the assembly of such constituents it was possible to begin to alter and prescribe the properties of the assembled nanostructures.

Nanostructured materials are modulated over nanometer length scales in zero to three dimensions. They can be assembled with modulation dimensionalities of zero (atom clusters or filaments), one (multilayers), two (ultrafine-grained overlayers or coatings or buried layers), and three (nanophase materials), or with intermediate dimensionalities.

Multilayers and clusters

Multilayered materials have had the longest history among the various artificially synthesized nanostructures, with applications to semiconductor devices, strained-layer superlattices, and magnetic multilayers. Recognizing the technological potential of multilayered quantum heterostructure semiconductor devices helped to drive the rapid advances in the electronics and computer industries. A variety of electronic and photonic devices could be engineered by utilizing the low-dimensional quantum states in these multilayers for applications in high-speed field-effect transistors and high-efficiency lasers, for example. Subsequently, a variety of nonlinear optoelectronic devices, such as lasers and light-emitting diodes, have been created by nanostructuring multilayers.

The advent of beams of atom clusters with selected sizes allowed the physics and chemistry of these confined ensembles to be critically explored, leading to increased understanding of their potential, particularly as the constituents of new materials, including metals, ceramics, and composites of these materials. A variety of carbon-based clusters (fullerenes) have also been assembled into materials of much interest. In addition to effects of confinement, interfaces play an important and sometimes dominant role in cluster-assembled nanophase materials, as well as in nanostructured multilayers.

LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing Synthesis of Metal Oxide Nanostructures via Facile Chemical Routes: New Synthesis method for Multifunctional Nano-structures
Book (LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing)

Catalyst Could Jump-Start E-Cars

by 56andfixed


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Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists have designed a new type of nanostructured-carbon-based catalyst that could pave the way for reliable, economical next-generation batteries and alkaline fuel cells, providing for practical use of wind- and solar-powered electricity, as well as enhanced hybrid electric vehicles.
In a paper appearing recently in Nature Communications, Los Alamos researchers Hoon T. Chung, Piotr Zelenay and Jong H. Won, the latter now at the Korea Basic Science Institute, describe a new type of nitrogen-doped carbon-nanotube catalyst

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by living-in-the-ME


Oct. 2006: President George W. Bush signed the Department of Defense Authorization legislation. The House amendment was authored and introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wa.) ordering a comprehensive study - with a report due in one year - on possible adverse health effects on U.S. soldiers from the U.S. military's use of DU - Depleted Uranium. The Senate companion bill was backed by Joe Lieberman of Conn., a democrat at the time. (McDermott's Web site: )
Feb. 6, 2007: The New York newspaper, The Post Chronicle, reported that U

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Carbon-based nanostructures are already being used as materials in solar cells with increasing frequency, yet their ability to enhance electrical performance has thus far been hampered by limited ability to assemble orderly networks using the materials.

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