Development and Prospective Applications of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

The Sector of Nano-Technology, at present, has evolved with a gigantic breakthrough in the World of Technology. Keeping in view the application of Nano- Technology on items such as of range from clothing to etc., funding and investment are immensely encompassed for research in materials throughout the world. Nanotechnology is being well-thought-out as another industrial revolution and is expected to be our socioeconomic life for the upcoming 40-50 years. Nanotechnology deals with the materials at small level such as atoms and molecules are referred to be as Nano-Technology. Nanotechnology is the science and technology at the level of such small material sizes as that of atoms and molecules. These materials are called to be as “Nanomaterials”. Their structures are keenly researched and these materials are used in almost all types of industrial products to improve their quality and performance with large value additions. In order to perceive the small sizes of atoms and molecules, it can be imagined that these sizes are 800,000 times smaller in size as compared to the thickness of human hair or of a paper sheet.

The materials used at that small sizes or scale, what is termed as “nano scale”, are termed as nanomaterials and have very exotic properties and improve the performance of the products, thereby adding great value to the similar industrial products which donot use nanoscale materials and which bring much lower prices. These industrial products could be textiles, medicines, pharmaceuticals, sports goods, auto or electronics products, computers, communication equipment, solar energy, clean drinking water, materials of construction industry, oil and gas exploration, defense and security equipment, etc.

This is because of the fact that all materials are made of atoms and molecules and the control and use of materials at that small sizes make the products of great quality and performance. In this chapter, it has been endeavored to summarize the recent development in nanotechnology for numerous applications in energy/power, medicine/healthcare, water purification, biotechnology, electronics, sporting goods, environmental issues, defense/security, and textile/fabrics.

The development of nano-structured materials have opened a new paradigm whereby the nano-reinforcement and matrix resin can be tailored to optimize the physical and mechanical properties of resulting reinforced nano-composite materials manifold. The potential applications of this revolutionary class of nano-composite promise a significant opportunity for improving structural dynamic properties. This has led to emergence of new frontiers in mechanical, electronic and aerospace structures focusing on multi functionalized, self assembling and self healing materials. Such kind of materials can sense and autonomously respond to changes in environmental conditions, flight envelope and structural health, ultimately enhancing the durable performance characteristics and mission survivability for next generation aerospace vehicles. This chapter reviews the latest developments in the area of nano-composites with reference to nano-clays, nano-fibers and nano-tubes and their applications in smart aerospace structures. The classification, characterization and applications of various types of nano-composites have been discussed in aerospace industry in detail. It will highlight the applications of nano-composites in relaunch vehicles, space ladders, ablatives, internal motor casing and nano-modified carbon/carbon composites. Successes in this field have sprawled the subsequent attempts to emulate biological, bio-mimetic and smart materials. This will result in paradigm shift in space doctrine and philosophy for establishing space stations in low earth orbit in times to come.

Nano materials, organic semiconductor complexes and composites have wide range of applications in various devices. In this chapter, use and potential applications of nano materials, organic semiconductor complexes and composites sensors, organic field effect transistors, thin-film field effect transistors, temperature sensitive fieldeffect transistor, solar cells, and light-emitting diodes have been summarized.

The progress of nanostructured materials have untied a new standard whereas the nanoreinforcement and matrix resin can be modified to optimize the physical and mechanical properties of various composite materials. This resulted in appearance of new frontiers in mechanical and electronic structures centering on multi functionalized, self-assembling, self-healing materials and have shown outstanding applications in many fields. This chapter emphasizes about nanocomposites, their classification and characterization of different types of nanocomposites.

Synthesis of nanoparticles of various compositions and exciting properties, sizes and a variety of morphologies is a vast expanding subject of nanoscience because of their very interesting and a variety of applications. Preparation of nanoparticles with remarkable characteristics along with desired size and morphology in a precisely controlled and reproducible manner is an art by itself. Solvothermal/hydrothermal based synthetic methods are economical and environmental friendly because they are carried out in a close system avoiding toxic solvents and reagents. In this chapter, solvothermal/hydrothermal syntheses of magnetic nanomaterials especially iron oxide nanoparticles and other nanostructures, metal ferrites and mixed metal ferrites and composites have been reviewed.

Semiconductors have been potential materials for device grade applications due to their exceptional properties. In range of other compound semiconductors, II-VI's are such compound semiconducting materials having cations from the Group II and anions from Group VI of the periodic table. Keeping research and technological importance of these materials, density functional theory (DFT) based study of II-VI semiconducting nanoclusters was carried out and is described in this chapter.