91 Atoms

91 atoms

Nature and the nanotechnologist have 91 different atoms to play with—each is roughly spherical but different in its size and its ability to interact with and bind to other atoms. Many, many different molecules exist—millions are known and hundreds of new ones are made or discovered each year.








Polymer

lnsulators do not have moving electrons to conduct charge. They are also generally not shiny because there are no free electrons to reflect the light that shines upon them. Even though we won't worry much about shininess, how free the flow of electrons in a material is matters quite a bit for nanotechnology.

Most polymers are based on carbon because carbon has an almost unique ability to bond to itself. Polymers are single molecules formed of repeating patterns of atoms (called monomers) connected in a chain. In a sample such as a polystyrene drinking cup, there will be many different structures, and the chains will be of different lengths.







Quantum mechanics in disguise


Many of the basic rules that define the behavior of nanostructures are the laws of quantum mechanics in disguise. Examples include issues such as how small a wire can be and still carry electrical charge, or how much energy we have to put into a molecule before it can change its charge state or act as a memory element.






[Nanofabrication] is building at the ultimate level of finesse.
—Richard Smalley
Nobel Laureate and Professor, Rice University


................and it wasn't until the year 2000 (as Feynman predicted with uncanny accuracy) that devices started to break into the nanoscale and people started asking why we hadn't thought of this long before.