Notes of the course nano scales part

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Bioartificial system at the nanoscale Introduction Nanotechnology is one of the most important growing areas in the 21st century and is used to build structures that work at the nanoscale. We can tune the properties of a material by changing the dimensions of the object. Timeline: - 5th century AD: the first nanomaterial, the Lycurgus cup which changes colour according to light. Only recently was found that the properties of the cap are due to the nano-dispersion of particles in the glass. - 9th – 17th century: colours of stained glass which are not due to pigment but depends on the different dimension and shape of the same particles. The same was done in china for porcelain - 13th – 18th century: Damascus blades famous for their sharpness due to the carbon nanotubes. - 1875: Faraday observed ruby old, producing small particles of gold the colour of the material change - 1959: Feyman introduced the possibility to go down at the nanoscale by using atoms as a building block, the lecture is called ‘there’s plenty of room at the bottom’ which means that at the nanoscale there is a lot space to produce technological systems. - 1974: Tamaguchi firstly introduced the term nanotechnology to refer to the ability to engineer materials at the nanometre level - 1981: two researchers invented the STM scanning tunnelling microscope at the IBM - 1985: discovery of carbon buckyballs also called fullerene - 1986: development of the AFM. Then the IBM logo was composed placing atom by atom on a flat surface. On the idea of Feyman Drexler develop the book engines of creation. He suggested that with the use of nanotechnology it would be possible to build structures build atom by atom to obtain engines similar to those at the macroscale. But at that level quantum mechanics plays the major…