Review about Development from Nanotechnology to Nano-Engineering

The world is presently witnessing the advancement and development of a new multidisciplinary technology, “Nanotechnology”. The concepts that seeded nanotechnology was first discussed in 1959 by renowned physicist Feynman [1] in his talk. Figure 1: Generations of nanotechnology development Roco [3]. Res Dev Material Sci Copyright © Said S E H Elnashaie 2/6 How to cite this article: Said S E H E, Firoozeh D, Hassan H R. Review about Development from Nanotechnology to Nano-Engineering . Res Dev Material Sci . 6(3). RDMS.000636.2018. DOI: 10.31031/RDMS.2018.06.000636 Volume 6Issue 3 Accordingly, a comprehensive definition for Nanotechnology is: “Nanotechnology is art and science of manipulating atoms and molecules to create systems, materials, and devices at nano scale as well as their application in various fields.” Nanotechnology can be referred to as a general-purpose technology, as it has significant impacts on almost all industries and all areas of society. Nanotechnology is expected to offer better built, longer lasting, cleaner, safer, and smarter products for the home, for communications, for medicine, for transportation, for agriculture, and for industry in general. Chemistry and materials science and in some cases biology are integrated to create new properties of materials in nanoscale. However, engineering principles must be exploited to gain market opportunities. Application of nanotechnology in different fields The expectations from nanotechnology as a key technology of the current century for innovative products and new market potentials are high. Some of these potential applications of nanotechnology-based products are presented in this section. Nanotechnology in biotechnology The size of nanometer is of central importance in the nature and biological systems. Cells are the main element of the living organisms that can be much smaller than the sub-micron size domain. A wide range of biomolecules, like proteins and viruses, are in the nano-scale range (Figure 2). Accordingly, nanotechnology has become a part of the world of biotechnology for understanding the biological systems and their phenomena [4]. Unexpected growth in the field of nanotechnology and biotechnology has brought novel technologies that make it possible to: Figure 2: Various nano-sized biological systems. a. Design new nanostructures by mimicking the structure and function of living systems b. Control and alter the biosystems including cellular and sub-cellular organelles, protein molecules, receptors, and cytokines. Proteins, with a typical size of 5nm, are comparable to the smallest nanoparticles that have been made by researchers. This circumstance has led to the improvement of the health care and medical research through the development of nano-based products, as a result of research efforts. These products have extensively found bio-applications in the fields of cosmetics, drug delivery, imaging and medical diagnosis, tissue engineering, etc. for example, biomolecules can be attached to nanoparticles by electrostatic forces including hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic forces and Vander Waals forces. New approaches of using nanostructures for biomolecule immobilization assist potential applications in biosensors (glucose sensor, DNA sensors), targeted drug delivery and other biocatalytic processes [5-7]. The optical properties of nanoparticles could be also implemented in imaging and characterization of bio-molecules, for example as a marker in TEM, as well as surface enhancement of fluorescent emission and Raman scattering [8,9]. The revolutionary advancements in bio-nanotechnology and biomedical research place a strong foundation for a customized, personalized, and quantitative medicine in the future. The vital role of nano-biotechnology in medicine is improvement of diagnostic technologies. Diagnosis is a key stage in health care; the earlier diagnose of a disease the more effective is the therapy, both from outcomes as well as from a total cost perspective. The integration of nanotechnology with medicine has given birth to a new field of science called “Nanomedicine.” The ultimate goal of nanomedicine is to develop well-engineered products (tools and materials) that could efficiently be used for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of different diseases. These products include drug delivery platforms, imaging systems, bio-chips and probes, needles for painless drug infusion or intracellular injections, etc. [4]. Nanostructures are an important component of biosensing platforms [10,11]. The extraordinary properties of nanostructures (specially electrical and optical properties) of nanostructures in the presence of biomolecules make them possible to be used in biosensors fabrication [12-14]. Biosensors, which act in the aqueous phase, are analytical devices incorporating biomolecule (e.g., DNA, enzymes, antibodies, microorganisms, etc.) associated with or integrated within a physico-chemical transducer [12]. Biosensors are now employed in a wide range of applications: a. Detecting of diseases, particularly in cancer diagnostics [15,16] b. These sensors capable of monitoring in vivo processes within living cells, leading to achieving new information on the inner workings of the entire cell and understanding the cellular function, thus revolutionizing cell biology and to differentiate normal and abnormal cells [12] c. Organophosphorus pesticides and nerve gases [17,18] d. Pathogens and toxins, or total cholesterol and glucose etc. in blood [19,20] e. Low concentration of toxic gases [21,22] Nanostructures have been also considered in the controlled release of active compounds in the application of pharmaceuticals [23] and food additives [24]. Drug delivery using nanostructures has demonstrated high and versatile loading capacity for therapeutic agents, some selective cargo unloading, and better cell penetration than many other delivery materials [25,26]. To achieve the efficient performance, a suitable scheme to conjugate the drug and the nanostructure is required to make nanostructures into