Supramolecular Chemistry Nanotechnology toward Future

We have discussed various molecular devices created from supermolecules in this chapter. Molecular level techniques and science will play an important roles in the development of nanotechnology in the twenty-first century. Ultrasmall devices with huge information densities will minimize pollution and energy waste, and improve our lifestyles. Tiny robots will be used in medical applications. Excursions into space - manned and unmanned - will benefit enormously from the use of nanomachines and the products of nanotechnology, which should lead to much cheaper and safer space missions. 

However, in Nanotechnology Research Directions (a report pubfished by the US government in 1999), it was pointed out that current nanoscale technologies are still highly inferior to those seen in natural systems. The efficiency of the energy conversion that occurs in mitochondrial and photosynthetic systems far exceeds those obtained in artificial systems. A dog can smell and a bat can hear far more sensitively than most artificial sensors. The information pro- 

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