Chemical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

The evolution of chemical nanotechnology has brought chemists working in close collaboration with other scientific and engineering disciplines, physics and biochemistry, as well as with materials scientists and industrialists. In order for this area of chemistry to progress rapidly it is crucial that these diverse specialists understand the requirements of each other and work together efficiently. Although interest groups already exist in both the IoP and IoM³ no equivalent group has yet been established within the RSC. It is also noteworthy that the ACS already has a nanotechnology subdivision, the Subdivision of Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. The absence of such a group represents a clear gap in the RSC's portfolio of special interest groups. One of the aims of the Chemical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (CNN) Subject Group would be to represent the interests of chemistry within the wider scope of nanotechnology. However, it should be made clear that the group would seek to work closely with other groups, such as those within the IoP and IoM3 and other special interest groups in the RSC, to avoid overlaps and repetition 

The aims of the CNN Subject Group are: 

• To create a forum for chemists interested in chemical nanoscience and nanotechnology to make contact with each other and with scientists and industrialists who may provide the enabling technologies.     
• To provide an opportunity for members of the Subject Group to increase their knowledge and to enhance their professional capacity by holding meetings.
• To encourage networking, the exchange of information and the dissemination of results amongst members of the Subject Group and international collaboration, particularly within the EU.   
• To assist in the public understanding of the social, educational, environmental and economical importance of chemical nanotechnology. 
• To identify academics, corporate leaders and other individuals who are willing to participate in the work of the Chemical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Subject Group.   

Scope 

The activities and interests of Group will include all areas of chemical nanoscience and nanotechnology. For example: 

• The fabrication and utilisation of novel nanostructured materials. 
• The fabrication and utilisation of novel nanoparticle materials including metal, oxide and other inorganic systems.   
• The fabrication of carbon and inorganic nanotubes and fullerenes and their utilisation in technological processes. 
• The fabrication and utilisation of novel nanostructures using bottom-up self-assembly processes.   
• The development of top-down lithographic processes and materials to fabricate nanostructured surfaces.  
• The integration of bottom-up self-assembly processes with top-down lithographic processes to create three dimensional functioning and adaptive nanostructures. 
• The fabrication and utilisation of novel nanostructured surfaces, 
• The fabrication and utilisation of novel quantum dots in technological processes. 
• The fabrication and utilisation of novel biologically relevant nanostructures. 
• Investigation of the property-size relationship at the nanoscale. 
• Health, safety and environmental implications of chemical nanoscience and nanotechnology.   

By placing chemists at the interface with a variety of scientific and engineering disciplines, the Chemical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Subject Group will provide the Royal Society of Chemistry with a rare opportunity to spread its influence beyond the traditional boundaries of chemistry and enable it to fulfill one of its key objectives of promoting chemistry to non-chemists.