What is nanotechnology?

Prof Richard Haverkamp, of Massey University, describes how nanotechnology means different things to different people.

Transcript

DR RICHARD HAVERKAMP

Nanotechnology means quite different things to different people, so for me as a chemical engineer its all about chemical reactions and using small structures to change chemical reactions. So for example you can use tiny structured catalysts and get things to happen that you couldn't with larger materials. Nanotechnology can mean making little devices and then for other people nanotechnology’s about making little optical devices where you are interacting with wave lengths of light, in a different way to larger structures. So nanotechnology means quite a few different things depending on what area.