Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 1.1 Scheme of
technological “top-down”
and “bottom-up” principles
Up-down mode
design
technology
industry
product
Bottom-up mode
emerging
system
sources
product
emerging
properties
processes
Further literature examples could be given where nanotechnological ideas would
become apparent in one form or another. However, those already described are
sufficient to emphasize the basic principles of nanotechnological approaches they
convey:
- Maximum micro(nano)-miniaturization of macro-objects, which leads to their
micro-analogues with properties modified in the intended direction
- Directed alteration of the structure of the macro-objects at the micro (nano)-level
aimed at achieving the intended change in the properties of the macro-object
- The technological principle “bottom-up”
It should be noted that even before the nanotechnology boom researchers in
various fields of human activity were using these principles, similar to the well-
known hero of the play by Moli`re who, unbeknownst to himself, had been
speaking prose.
1.1.2 A Little Detail: Just One Example from Chemistry
Caoutchouc played an important role in the engineering of the first half of the past
century, with a variety of industrial products produced on its basis. It was shipped to
the industrial countries from Southeast Asia. It was known that natural caoutchouc
was a polymer of an organic compound—isoprene. Nevertheless, all attempts to
obtain synthetic caoutchouc on the isoprene basis in the prewar years failed
(Fig.
1.2
). Polymerization took place, but the resulting product was so different
from the natural one that its use as a substitute was impossible. Upon the advent of
the Second World War the sources of natural rubber were cut off due to the rapid
capture of Southeast Asia by Japan. By that time the major industrialized countries
had mastered the production of caoutchouc substitutes on another synthetic base. In
the Soviet Union polybutadiene was created after the fundamental studies by I. L.
Kondakov and S. V. Lebedev. In Germany the production of butadiene-styrene
