nanoscale

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the dimensional regime spanning approximately 1 to 100 nanometres — one nanometre being 10⁻⁹ metres, approximately 10 hydrogen atoms laid side by side — at which the properties of matter are dominated by quantum mechanical effects and surface phenomena rather than the bulk properties that govern larger-scale materials; at the nanoscale, the ratio of surface atoms to interior atoms becomes very large, making surface chemistry dominant; quantum confinement effects cause discrete energy levels to emerge in conductors and semiconductors; and classical descriptions of thermal, optical, and mechanical behaviour break down in favour of quantum mechanical descriptions; the term nanoscale is used both as an adjective — nanoscale devices, nanoscale phenomena — and as a noun referring to this regime as a domain of science and engineering; the development of instruments capable of imaging and manipulating matter at the nanoscale — STM, AFM, transmission electron microscopy — was a prerequisite for the emergence of nanotechnology as a practical field

Examples

• At the nanoscale, gold particles appear red rather than yellow because quantum confinement shifts their optical absorption.
• Engineering at the nanoscale requires tools that can manipulate individual atoms and molecules with precision.