Nano Materials Roadmap

Nanostructured materials are metal or ceramic materials made up of crystals sized at the nano-scale (usually less than 100 nm). Controlling and reducing the crystal size provides nanostructured materials with improved structural properties as these are heavily dependent on the materials’ grain size.

In general, crystals’ size has a different impact in metals (making them stronger and harder but more brittle) than in ceramics (which become more malleable and tougher). Controlling the materials’ electronic structure enables the development of electronic and/or optoelectronic applications.

Nanocrystalline materials are characterised by the high proportion of grain boundaries within the material (in some case higher than 50% of the total material). There are also multi-phase nanostructured materials consisting of different layers (e.g. 2-phase nanostructured materials).

The 2004 Roadmap for Nano Structured Materials developed for the European Commission is one example of the more than 30 roadmaps developed in the nano technology disciplines.

The most popular years of origin for nano related roadmaps so far are 2005 and 2006.

The European Union and the United States have been the most prolific regions for development of technology roadmaps.

The areas covered in this technology roadmap include: Nanostructured materials, Nanoparticles / Nanopowders, Nanocapsules, Nanoporous materials, Nanofibres, Fullerenes Nanowires, Single-Walled and Multi-Walled (Carbon) Nanotubes, Dendrimers, Molecular Electronics, Quantum Dots and Thin Films.

To download the .pdf file of the example technology roadmap click the image of the front cover of the road map document.