Nanotechnology and its applications

Over the last few years nanotechnology has emerged as the science of all things small, more specifically, 'nano'. The nanometre scale runs from 1 to 100 nm with a nanometer being one-billionth of a meter. 

To put that scale of measurement into perspective, a nanometre is 1/80,000 of the diameter of a human hair. 

Materials this size display unusual physical and chemical properties caused by many factors including the increase in surface area compared to volume which occurs as particles get smaller.