Nanoscale means one billionth part of a meter or it also refers to as the dimension of 10-9 meters. The term nanoscale refers to the dimension of 10-9 meters. It is the one billionth part of a meter. Therefore, the particles that have a dimension with respect to their external, internal and surface structure and lie in the range of 1nm to 100nm Nanoparticles
These materials are not visible to the eye, the material that have a science approach to nanotechnology are considered nanomaterials. These materials have unique properties and compared to their molecular-scale behavior, they show properties that include optical, electronic, quantum and mechanical properties.
Definition of Nanoparticles
A nanoparticle may include nano object or a nanostructured material. Nano objects are the discrete pieces of material, whereas,
Nanostructured materials have their internal or surface structure in the nanoscale dimension.
Nanomaterials can occur naturally or are, artificial in the making or incidentally formed. With the advance in the research and technology, nanomaterials are being commercialized and are being useful commodities.
Properties of Nano particles
Some physical properties of nanomaterials relate to different origins: for example, (i) imperfections reduce large fraction of surface atoms, (ii) surface energy, (iii) spatial confinement, and (iv) surface atoms having large fractions. The following are just a few examples:
1. Nanomaterials, show huge fraction of surface atoms, from the total amount of atoms, they significantly lower melting point or phase transition temperature and also lattice constants are made less.
2. Mechanical properties of nanomaterials include strength that is higher than the single crystals in the bulk form, which may be a few magnitudes higher. The minimal absence of defects may be the reason for the enhancement in mechanical strength.
3. The properties that are optical in nature are markedly different from the nanomaterial and the bulk crystals. For example, for a given semiconductor the optical absorption peak is shifts to a shorter wavelength, as the band gap shows an increase. The colour of metallic nanoparticles may change with their sizes due to surface plasmon resonance.
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