This article presents an overview of various aspects of nanoscale technology. As opposed to the macroscale, where water molecules next to a pipe wall have zero velocity, in nanochannels, fluid molecules slip at the channel surface, experiencing an enhanced convective transport. Nanotechnology can also help us alter natural designs. Carbon nanotubes act like a reinforcement to give synthetic tissue the strength, stiffness, and viscoelastic performance of natural membranes. In order to store macroscopically significant amounts of energy, one needs to deform large numbers of carbon nanotubes. It is more challenging still to deform them in a way that maintains high-energy density of overall system. Micro- and nanoscale structures have given us capabilities to interact with cells and pathogens at their level as never before and helped us understand how they live, grow, multiply, differentiate, and die.

This article presents an overview of various alternative methods of nanoscale fabrication to bring revolution in the medical device development. Carbon nanotubes are considered to have great potential in biology and medicine, thanks to their desirable properties. These nanotubes are a macromolecular form of carbon; although their diameters are suitably nanoscale, ranging from 0.4 nm to 100 nm, they can be as much as several thousand nanometers long. Nanoscale fabrication can create devices that can work on individual cells and provide treatments that would be impossible if we were trying to issue them in bulk throughout the body. Nanoparticles can be fabricated using both top-down and bottom-up fabrication methods. In the top-down method, nanoparticles are carved from the bulk materials using techniques such as electron-beam lithography, reactive ion etching, and wet etching. Hybrid methods promise to integrate bottom-up and top-down nanofabrication in new and innovative ways by leveraging the strengths and unique features of both approaches.

This article focuses on the future applications and challenges of nanotube-enhanced composites. In spite of their well-known strength and stiffness, nanotubes have proved incredibly difficult to harness, especially in composites. Researchers have eventually found ways to compatibilize nanotubes by attaching molecules to the nanotube surface. Some formulators compatibilize nanotubes for infusion processes, which pump resin into reinforcing fiber preforms. Electric hybrid car designer Velozzi is working with Bayer Materials Science LLC, a subsidiary of Germany’s Bayer AG, to use nanotube-based composites in its high-performance electric Supercar and its more affordable plug-in hybrid Solo. Lockheed Martin is investigating a complete range of applications for carbon nanotubes in both materials and electronics. The company wants to incorporate nanotubes into its established production methods. Nanotubes improve resistance to impact, fatigue, and microcracking, all properties related to resins. The result is a much stronger and more durable composite.

This article highlights the advantages of carbon nanotubes (CNT) and their high potential in the mechanical engineering fields. It also demonstrates comparison between a CNT and normal spring use. Carbon nanotubes have the potential to store a thousand times more mechanical energy, pound for pound, than steel springs. Lab results point to a day when nanotube-powered bikes and lawn equipment could become practical. The test models have made it clear that from an energy storage standpoint, the ideal system would be composed of large numbers of long, small-diameter, single-walled CNTs arranged in well-ordered groupings and loaded in tension. The results point up the need for more work to be done to understand how interactions among carbon nanotubes can both enhance and limit the performance of CNT springs. Applications requiring long-term, low-leakage energy storage are good candidates for CNT-based elastic energy storage technology.

This article reviews the Korean government initiative to support a pillar of its economic strength, electronics. Analysts see demand is increasing for faster and smaller devices, which are already bordering the nanometer scale. As a result, Korea has put forth an ambitious plan that will prepare itself to achieve world-class competitiveness in nanotechnology within the next 10 years. Many nanotechnology-related research projects are conducted by various groups in the government, university, and industrial laboratories covering nanomagnetic and ferroelectric thin-film processing, carbon nanotubes for molecular electronic devices, quantum dots, quantum computing, nanolithography, single-electron transistors, scanning probe microscope-based surface physics, and nanoelectromechanical systems. The center’s mission is to help build up national infrastructure so Korea may join the ranks of the five leading countries in the world in the relevant micro and nanosystems technology by 2010. The two main areas of research in this project are a swallowable endoscopic microcapsule for examining digestive tracts and a wearable personal digital assistant for information technology applications.

This article focuses on NASA Langley that is manipulating carbon nanotubes to test for weaknesses in advanced aircraft materials. NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA, is making use of nanotechnology to develop methods for nondestructive evaluation to support super lightweight, multifunctional structures. Carbon nanotubes, for instance, can be used as sensing elements embedded in materials. In general, nondestructive evaluation methods could be used to detect flaws in material structures, such as pressure vessels, air plane hulls that expand at high altitudes, or space stations subject to bombardment from meteorites. Using the NanoManipulator makes it possible to fine tune the position of the nanotubes. Besides plotting coordinates on a screen, the NanoManipulator’s haptic interface—a penlike device for guiding the scanning probe—will stop the user from pushing the probe tip through the surface of the sample.

Recent experiments have shown that thermal conductivity of carbon nanotubes can be more than twice that of diamond. It should be noted that high mechanical strength often comes with high thermal conductivities. Recent experiments have shown that the thermal conductivity of carbon nanotubes can be as high as 3000 to 6000 W/m K at room temperature, which is more than twice that of diamond. It was recently shown by Alex Zettl and his group at the University of California, Berkeley that the relative motion between different shells of multiwall carbon nanotubes has some unique properties and can serve as excellent mechanical bearings that do not undergo any wear. Recent work has led to multifunctional probes, which, besides topography, can detect thermal, electrical, magnetic, and optical signals at nanoscales. The engineering challenge now is to develop microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based probes that integrate multiple functions on a single tip.