Introduction to Nanotechnology and Bionanotechnology

Nanotechnology emerged as a novel and powerful tool to manipulate matters at a “nano-scale” and enable the evolution of many aspects, including biotechnology, medicine, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, food, cosmetics, environment protection, electronics, information technology, construction, military, energy industry, space industry, and consumer products among others. It extended the ability of people beyond the limited border that had not been broken for many decades and opened a window to the tiny universe of minuscule functional machines and specific-behavior-particles as well. Back to 50 years ago, a portable seawater desalination device was solely an imagination of human beings. Prior to the advent of nanotechnology, people might not think that they would have a high-capacity hydrogen warehouse within a nano-scale system. People even could not imagine that they would be able to monitor their health status by a wearable on-skin chip embedded on their skin or a minuscule robot moving in their blood vessels. These are no longer fictional scenarios in movies, but a reality today. It can be said that nanotechnology, as a reliable foundation, has supported human to fulfill our dreams and imagination, resulting in dramatical change of our life. Particularly, nanomaterials, as the child of nanotechnology, have led us to the era of miniature structures.