2D nanocarbons : functional aspects and device fabrication

Abstract

The etymological basis of prefix Nano can be traced back to Greek nan(n)os or Latin nanus", meaning Dwarf". According to the dictionary definitions, Nano refers to one-billionth which means to designate extreme smallness. Thus, the word Nano indicates something of the order of 10-9 (one billionth), for example, the diameter of a single walled carbon nanotube is of the order of 10-9 m, which is 1 nanometer. The strand width of the human hair is about 100 ?m, equals to ~100,000 nanometers. Comparison of various natural and man-made nano and micron sized systeM.S. is shown in Figure I.1. Nanoscience is about studying the properties of nanoscale objects, whose physical dimensions (at least in one dimension) are in the range of 1-100 nm [1, 2].