INTRODUCTION TO NANOTECHNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR SELF-ASSEMBLY

Abstract

What is nanoscience? What is nanotechnology? What is so special about nanoscale? These questions are only a few important to discuss, in order to understand the nanoworld. We describe nanoscience and nanotechnology introducing the basic ideas of the new technology that can significantly change our lives. Nanoworld is invisible to the naked eye, and with many unusual properties of material. It has been observed that nanoscale numerous properties such as melting point, electrical conductivity, or chemical reactivity, change as a function of the size of the sample, and many nanomaterials have been produced. Special attention in this paper is focused on the formation of self-assembled monolayers. This process is described as the creation of organic thin films of nanometer thickness and it is an emerging area of materials chemistry, utilized in many applications.