Medical Physics

Lect. No. 1, and No. 2

“Nanoscience, and Nanotechnology”

Dr. Fadhil A. Umran

Department of Radiology Tech.
Al-Nisour University College

2019-2020
 Nanoscience
Nanoscience breakthroughs in almost every field of
science and nanotechnologies make life easier in this
era. 
Nanoscience and nanotechnology represent an
expanding research area, which involves structures,
devices, and systems with novel properties and
functions due to the arrangement of their atoms on the
1–100 nm scale.
Nanotechnologies contribute to almost every field of
science, including physics, materials science,
chemistry, biology, computer science, and engineering.
In recent years nanotechnologies have been applied to
human health with promising results, especially in the field
of cancer treatment.

Definition of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

The prefix ‘nano’ is referred to a Greek prefix meaning
‘dwarf’ or something very small and depicts one thousand
millionth of a meter (10−9 m). 
Nanoscience is the study of structures and molecules on the
scales of nanometers ranging between 1 and 100 nm, and
the technology that utilizes it in practical applications such
as devices etc. is called nanotechnology.
 
Figure 1. A comparison of sizes of nanomaterial. 
It is the ability to convert the nanoscience theory
to useful applications by observing, measuring,
manipulating, assembling, controlling and
manufacturing matter at the nanometer scale via
nanotechnology.
Nanoscience is a convergence of physics,
materials science and biology, which deal with
manipulation of materials at atomic and molecular
scales; while nanotechnology is the ability to
observe measure, manipulate, assemble, control,
and manufacture matter at the nanometer scale.
Nanotechnology therefore is the complex interdisciplinary
science including:
1. Nano-chemistry (nano-colloid, sol-gel and quantum chemistry)
destined for self assembling and synthesis of nanoparticles as well
as for research of their intrinsic size effects.
2. Nanophysics (quantum physics, spintronic, photonics) destined
for artificial assembling and fabrication of nanostructures as well
as for research of their external size effects.
3. Nanomaterials science (nano-powder technology, nano-
ceramics compounds, nano-tribology, nano-sintering and other
nano-processes) destined for research, development and
production of novel nanostructured architectures, functional
nanomaterials and smart nanocomponents with unique properties.
4. Nano-electronics, optoelectronics and nano-engineering
destined for development of novel technological processes, nano-
motors, nano-actuators, nano-devices, micro-optoelectro-
mechanical systems (MEMS, MOEMS), ultra-large integrated
circuits (ULCI), nano-robots, etc.
5. Nano-bionics destined for development of novel biomachine
complexes, such as nano-biochips, nano-biorobots, etc.
6. Nano-metrology, nano-device-building and nano-hand-craft
destined for development of special nano-tools, instrumentations,
information and computational systems for
support of NT itself.
At the beginning of 21st century, there was an increased
interest in the nanoscience and nanotechnology fields
like in computer science, bio and engineering.
Recently, a number of studies highlighted the huge
potential that nanotechnologies play in biomedicine for
the diagnosis and therapy of many human diseases
Examples of “nano-pharmaceuticals” include
nanomaterials for drug delivery and regenerative
medicine, as well as nanoparticles with antibacterial
activities or functional nanostructures used for
biomarker detection like nano-biochips, nano-
electrodes, or nano-biosensors 
Classification of Nanomaterials;
Nanomaterials are broadly classified into three categories,
namely, Nanoparticles, Nanoclays, and Nanoemulsions(Fig.1).
1. Nanoparticles
Nanoparticles can exist as nanostructures or as composites.
All nanostructures can be built from elementary units (blocks)
having low dimensionality – zero dimension(0D), one
dimension (1D), two dimensions (2D)and three
dimensions(3D) .
Depending on the dimension in which the size effect on the
resultant property becomes apparent and the nanomaterials
can be classified as zero dimensional (quantum dots) in which
the movement of electrons is confined in all three dimensions,
Fig.2.Classification of nanomaterials: nanoparticles, nanoclays and nanoemulsions
Nanoparticles can also be classified into organic and
inorganic nanoparticles based on nature of material
fabrication.
Inorganic nanoparticles are typically shaped by the
precipitation of inorganic salts, which are interconnected
with molecules by covalent, metallic and so forth.
The organic nanoparticles were assembled themselves in
three dimensional form. Self-assembly, the vicinity of
zwitterionic
particles, with polar and nonpolar areas, as the primary
segments of nanoparticles was key element for the
fabrication of organic nanoparticles.
2.Nanoclays
Preparation of nanoclays and organoclays using
charged (hydrophilic) nature of clay molecules
such as alkyl/aryl ammonium, phosphonium or
imidazolium in aqueous or solid state.
It is easy and simple to characterize the chemical
composition of nanoclays by gravimetric
analysis, inductive coupled plasma, X-ray
diffraction and fourier transform infrared
spectroscopy.
3.Nanoemulsion
Dispersion of polymer, droplets and solid
material in the form of a viscous liquid leads to
an interesting soft material.
Nanoemulsion can be synthesized by two
methods; high (ultrasonification, high pressure
homogenization, microfluidizer) and low energy
emulsification (phase inversion temperature,
solvent displacement and phase inversion
composition)
Nanoparticles are produced by three different
methods such as chemical, physical and bio-based.
Characterization of Nanomaterials
Several sophisticated techniques being
continuously developed for characterization of the
size, shape, stability, of nanomaterial as well as to
determine and identify the
presence of metal signals in the synthesized
nanomaterials.
Characterization of nanomaterials can be carried
out using two major strategies which are
spectroscopy and microscopy techniques.
Nanotubes, nanorodes, nanowires, nanofibers
manifest more advanced and promising properties
as being the 1D quantum wires nanoscopic in
diameter but microscopic in length.
Reduced two-dimensional 2D hetero-structures,
nanolayers and nanodisks as being the well
known 2D quantum wells are believed to migrate
from micro- to nano-electronics. In addition the
2D arrays of nanowires and nanotubes ordered in
2D forest arrays or 2D crystals seem to be novel
and very perspective core of NT.
NANOMATERIAL SYNTHESIS AND PROCESSING
We are dealing with very fine structures: a
nanometer is a billionth of a meter. This indeed
allows us to think in both the ‘bottom up’ or the
‘top down’ approaches to synthesize
nanomaterials, i.e. either to assemble atoms
together or to dis-assemble (break, or dissociate)
bulk solids into finer pieces until they are
constituted of only a few atoms. This domain is a
pure example of interdisciplinary work
encompassing physics, chemistry, and
engineering upto medicine
Fig. : Schematic illustration of the preparative methods of
nanoparticles.
Properties of Nanomaterials
Nanomaterials have the structural features in between of
those of atoms and the bulk materials.
While most micro-structured materials have similar
properties to the corresponding bulk materials, the
properties of materials with nanometer dimensions are
significantly different from those of atoms and bulks
materials. This is mainly due to the nanometer size of the
materials which render them:
(i) large fraction of surface atoms;
(ii) high surface energy;
(iii) spatial confinement;
(iv) reduced imperfections, which do not exist in the
corresponding bulk materials.
Optical properties
One of the most fascinating and useful aspects of
nanomaterials is their optical properties.
Applications based on optical properties of
nanomaterials include optical detector, laser, sensor,
imaging, phosphor, display, solar cell, photo-
catalysis, photo-electrochemistry and biomedicine.
The optical properties of nanomaterials depend on
parameters such as feature size, shape, surface
characteristics, and other variables including doping
and interaction with the surrounding environment or
other nanostructures.
Fig. Fluorescence emission of (CdSe) ZnS quantum dots of various sizes
and absorption spectra of various sizes and shapes of gold nanoparticles
Electrical Properties
Electrical Properties of Nanoparticles” discuss
about fundamentals of electrical conductivity in
nanotubes and nano-rods, carbon nanotubes,
photoconductivity of nano-rods, electrical
conductivity of nanocomposites.
The important point here is that, with decreasing
diameter of the wire, the number of electron wave
modes contributing to the electrical conductivity
is becoming increasingly smaller by well-defined
quantized steps.
Mechanical Properties
Mechanical Properties of Nanoparticles” deals
with bulk metallic and ceramic materials,
influence of porosity, influence of grain size,
super-plasticity, filled polymer composites,
particle filled polymers, polymer-based
nanocomposites filled with platelets, carbon
nanotube-based composites.
polymers with nanoparticles or nano-rods and
nano-tubes, respectively, leads to significant
improvements in their mechanical properties.