Nano-structures comments on an example of extreme microstructure

7 Nano-structures comments on an example of extreme microstructure In a chapter entitled Materials in Extreme States , Cahn (2001) dedicated several comments to the extreme microstructures and summed up principles and technology of nano-structured materials. Historical remarks were cited starting from the early recognition that working at the nano-scale is truly different from traditional material science. The chemical behaviour and electronic structure change when dimensions are comparable to the length scale of electronic wave functions. Quantum effects do become important at this scale, as predicted by Lifshitz and Kosevich (1953). As for their nomenclature, notice that a piece of semiconductor which is very small in one, two- or three-dimensions, that is a confined structure, is called a quantum well, a quantum wire or a quantum dot, respectively. 

It has been pointed out however that further innovative steps are needed before single nano-tubes devices with adequate reproducibility can be made. A paper by Zhang et al. (2006) indicates parallel research lines intended to develop the various complementary aspects of nano-sciences and their applications. They observed that metallic and semi-conducting carbon nano-tubes generally coexist in as grown 

---