Nanoparticles: General aspects and applications

Since 80’s, we have spent enormous amount of money and effort to make everything smaller, and even in nanoscales, if possible. Smaller cell phones, smaller computer, smaller robots, smaller transistors. It is not because small things are more convenient, but it is because we are convinced that small is better. But why? In 1959, Richard Feynman described a process in which the manipulation of individual atoms was feasible. When this process eventually became a reality, it allowed us to control atoms and to expand or alter their characteristics. In other words, we acquired a chance to generate new materials with superior properties, by making everything much smaller (Peterson, 2004).