SA enters the nanofrontier

Abstract

Nanotechnology N anotechnology has captured the attention of governments, researchers and industries worldwide. A new generation of technology it holds the potential to revolutionalise the world we live in. Its possibilities seem endless, bound only by the limits of the imagination. Independent research firm Lux Research predicts that by 2014, the market for manufactured goods incorporating nanotechnology would be worth US$2,6-trillion. There are already more than 500 products being sold that claim they are made with nanoscale or engineered nanomaterials, from nanotube-infused graphite tennis rackets to antimicrobial bandages. Nanotechnology is the act, science and engineering for manipulating objects at the nanoscale. We are talking minute scales here – one nanometre is about one million times smaller than a millimetre. Or to put it another way, one nanometre is about 10 000 times narrower than a human hair or ten times the diameter of a hydrogen atom.

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