People comment that nano is all hype and hot air, and ask what has happened to the promised wave of applications that have been widely heralded over the last decade. This latest issue of NANO magazine aims to dispel the fallacy that nanomaterials are a technology in waiting.

 What do thin films offer?

One definition of a nano-material is that at least one dimension should be less than 100 nm, and the properties of the material should differ from the bulk form.

In 1986, the UK Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) launched what was arguably the world’s first national nanotechnology initiative, the National Initiative On Nanotechnology (NION). Professor Albert Franks, then Head of Metrology at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), was the motive force behind this. He had recognized that the ability to work at nanoscale tolerances was offering huge competitive benefits to industry in other countries, notably Japan, and that this capability was essential for UK manufacturing success.