Nano Textiles
by
M.Subramanian Senthil Kannan and R.Geethamalini,
Department of Textile Technology,
PSG College of Technology,
Coimbatore- 641 004, South India

Introduction
Nano-technology has been hailed as the biggest innovation after the computer chip.The prefix" nano", a Greek word meaning "dwarf", denotes a one billionth part (10-9m) that is, about 1/80,000 of the diameter of a human hair. Nanotechnology can best be considered as a 'catch-all' description of activities at the level of atoms and molecules that have applications in the real world.

Nano technology
An early promoter of the industrial applications of nano technology, Albert Franks, defined it as 'that area of science and technology where dimensions and tolerances in the range of 0.1 nm to 100 nm play a critical role'.
The term micro/nano-technology is broadly defined to encompass the synthesis and integration of materials, processes and devices of sub-millimeter to submicron size. It is used to mark a distinction between micro (current state of the art in disciplines such as electronics) and nano (mostly understood as referring to molecular devices).
Nanotechnology, according to the national nanotechnology initiative (NNI), is defined as utilization of structures with at least one dimension of nanometer size for the construction of materials, devices or systems with novel or significantly improved properties due to their nano- size.
The concept of nanotechnology is, however, not new, having been adopted by Taniguchi in 1974 when he defined the critical dimensions and tolerances in technology. Hence nanotechnology is part of the evolution of machining accuracy, with no differences from traditional fields of science or engineering except in size.
The unique properties depend on the surface and volume effects. The strength of the nano materials is due to large number of grains and its boundaries. These grain boundaries stop or impede any moving dislocation due to stress.
Fields of nanotechnology
Nano science can be applied to absolutely any field. It brings about a hybridisation in all fields of science, to get the best out of it.
Today nanotechnology consists of four major fields. These are: