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Nanoscopic scale

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The nanoscopic scale usually refers to structures with a length scale applicable to nanotechnology, usually cited as 1-100 nanometers. The nanoscopic scale is roughly speaking a lower bound to the mesoscopic scale for most solids.

For technical purposes, the nanoscopic scale is the size at which the expected fluctuations of the averaged properties due to the motion and behavior of individual particles can no longer be reduced to below some desirable threshold (often a few percent), and must be rigorously established within the context of any particular problem.

The 'nanoscopic scale' is sometimes marked as the point where the properties of a material change; above this point, the properties of a material are caused by 'bulk' or 'volume' effects, namely which atoms are present, how they are bonded, and in what ratios. Below this point, the properties of a material change, and while the type of atoms present and their relative orientations are still important, 'surface area effects', also referred to as quantum effects, become more apparent-these effects are due to the geometry of the material (how thick it is, how wide it is, etc), which, at these low dimensions, can have a drastic effect on quantized states, and thus the properties of a material.

For more information about Nanoscopic scale, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with nanoscale

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The next medical frontier: nano-surgery

The next medical frontier: nano-surgery

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created 16 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Engineering professor's nanorobot could be performing non-invasive surgical procedures on patients with tumors within the next decade.


Switchable Nanostructures Made with DNA

Switchable Nanostructures Made with DNA

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created 20 hours ago | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have found a new way to use a synthetic form of DNA to control the assembly of nanoparticles — this time resulting ...


Faster, cheaper DNA sequencing method developed

Faster, cheaper DNA sequencing method developed

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Dec 20, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (21) | comments 9

(PhysOrg.com) -- Boston University biomedical engineers have devised a method for making future genome sequencing faster and cheaper by dramatically reducing the amount of DNA required, thus eliminating the ...


Water droplets shape graphene nanostructures

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (7) | comments 0

A single-atom-thick sheet of carbon, like those seen in pencil marks -- offers great potential for new types of nanoscale devices, if a good way can be found to mold the material into desired shapes.


Caltech scientists film photons with electrons

Caltech scientists film photons with electrons

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (21) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Techniques recently invented by researchers at the California Institute of Technology -- which allow the real-time, real-space visualization of fleeting changes in the structure of nanoscale ...


Thermochemical nanolithography now allows multiple chemicals on a chip

Thermochemical nanolithography now allows multiple chemicals on a chip

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at Georgia Tech have developed a nanolithographic technique that can produce high-resolution patterns of at least three different chemicals on a single chip at writing speeds of ...


Heart cells on lab chip display 'nanosense' that guides behavior

Heart cells on lab chip display 'nanosense' that guides behavior

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Johns Hopkins biomedical engineers, working with colleagues in Korea, have produced a laboratory chip with nanoscopic grooves and ridges capable of growing cardiac tissue that more closely resembles natural ...


Argonne scientists to control attractive force for nanoelectromechanical systems

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory are developing a way to control the Casimir force, a quantum mechanical force, which attracts objects when they are only hundred nanometers apart.


Researchers demonstrate nanoscale X-ray imaging of bacterial cells

Researchers demonstrate nanoscale X-ray imaging of bacterial cells

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

An ultra-high-resolution imaging technique using X-ray diffraction is a step closer to fulfilling its promise as a window on nanometer-scale structures in biological samples. In the Proceedings of the National Ac ...


Nanoimaging in 3-D

Nanoimaging in 3-D

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 01, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (14) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- As technology shrinks ever smaller, interest in objects and devices on the nanoscale becomes more apparent. However, visualizing these objects in three dimensions comes with special challenges. ...


Highlight: Damping of acoustic vibrations in gold nanoparticles

Highlight: Damping of acoustic vibrations in gold nanoparticles

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Vibrations in nanostructures offer applications in molecular-scale biological sensing and ultrasensitive mass detection. To approach single-atom sensing, it is necessary to reduce the dimensions of the structures ...


Small optical force can budge nanoscale objects

Small optical force can budge nanoscale objects

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (14) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Engineering researchers have used a very tiny beam of light with as little as 1 milliwatt of power to move a silicon structure up to 12 nanometers.


New nanocrystalline diamond probes overcome wear

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Nov 10, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Researchers at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University have developed, characterized, and modeled a new kind of probe used in atomic force microscopy (AFM), which images, measures, ...


Danish nanowires have great potential

Danish nanowires have great potential

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Danish nanophysicists have developed a new method for manufacturing the cornerstone of nanotechnology research - nanowires. The discovery has great potential for the development of nanoelectronics and highly ...


Penn study: Transforming nanowires into nano-tools using cation exchange reactions

Transforming nanowires into nano-tools using cation exchange reactions

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Oct 23, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

A team of engineers from the University of Pennsylvania has transformed simple nanowires into reconfigurable materials and circuits, demonstrating a novel, self-assembling method for chemically creating nanoscale ...