Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the market share of Asia Pacific region is expected to grow significantly in the
nanotechnology market. According to RNCOS, with increasing usage of nano-
technology in various applications, global nanotechnology market is projected
to reach US$ 26 billion by the end of 2014, growing at a compound annual
growth rate (CAGR) of around 20% since 2011.
1.2 NMS FOR MEDICAL APPLICATIONS
This topic is focused in one particular area of nanotechnology, which is the
NMs. NMs are smaller than or comparable to a virus (20-450 nm), a protein
(5-50 nm), or a gene (2-nm wide and 10-100 nm long), and it is bigger than
the molecule of water but smaller than a bacteria (1 µm) or a pollen (100 µm)
(
Figure 1.1
). In addition to the size, specific NMs can be manipulated under
an external magnetic field or can be observed instrumentally to exhibit bright
stable fluorescence, Raman active, or other unique characteristics that lead to
their various applications in the medical field.
22-32
In addition, properly engi-
neered NMs are stable and allow attachment of multiple kinds of biomolecules
leading to their highly efficient use in medicine.
5,9,23,24,33-78
NMs have structural features and properties in between those of single
atoms/molecules and continuous bulk materials and have at least one dimen-
sion in the nanometer range (1 nm = 1 × 10
−9
m). They include clusters,
1,2
nanoparticles (NPs),
2-10,79-96
quantum dots (QDs),
9,97-100
nanotubes,
7,101
as
well as the collection or organization of these individual structures into two- and
three-dimensional assemblies. The nanoscale dimensions of NMs bring optical,
FIGURE 1.1
Comparative sizes of various micro- and nanoparticles.
(For color version of this
figure, the reader is referred to the online version of this topic)
