Definitions of nanotechnology

It is very difficult to define nanotechnology as many commonly used products have distributions that in the end extend into the nano regime. There are no commonly accepted criteria yet that allows one to draw a borderline between nanomaterials and their bulk counterparts.

Nano·tech·nol·o·gy (noun), Pronunciation: "na-nO-tek-'nä-l&-jE. The nanoscale is about a thousand times smaller than micro that is, about 1/80,000 of the diameter of a human hair. Approximately 3 to 6 atoms can fit inside of a nanometer, depending on the atom. The prefix nano means ten to the minus ninth power, or one billionth. Nano is of Greek origin and means dwarf. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter, or: 10^-9 m. Taniguchi defined the range of nanotechnology as being from 0.1 nanometers (nm) to 100 nm. As of today, there is no single definition of nanotechnology, however various definitions available in the literature are listed below.

• Nanotechnology is the science of making, studying, and working with things on a nano-scale, in other words, very very small.
• The term nanotechnology appeared on the scientific scene for the first time in the early 1970s. Taniguchi introduced it in 1974 to describe ultra-fine machining. The term nanotechnology was first coined by K. Eric Drexler in 1986, in the book “Engines of Creation”.
• The term nanotechnology was used to describe ultra-fine machining, or more specifically the precision manufacture of mechanical parts with finishes and tolerances in the nanometer range.
• Nanotechnology is the art of manipulating materials on an atomic or molecular scale especially to build microscopic devices such as robots ( Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary)