20 Things You Didn't Know About ... Nanoparticles

Nanoparticle research is a fascinating branch of science. Nanoparticles are defined as particles with a diameter smaller than 100 nm, are increasingly used in different applications, including drug carrier systems and to pass organ barriers such as the blood-brain barrier. The strongly size-related properties of nanoparticles offer uncountable opportunities for surprising discoveries. Nanotechnology is helping to considerably improve, even revolutionize, many technology and industry sectors: information technology, homeland security, medicine, transportation, energy, food safety, and environmental science, and among many others. 20 importants facts about nanoparticles given below:

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1. Naturally occurring nanoparticles include organic (proteins, polysaccharides, viruses, among others) as well as inorganic compounds (iron oxyhydroxides, aluminosilicates, metals, among others) and are produced by weathering, volcano eruptions, wildfires or microbial processes.

2. Nanoparticles were used by artisans as far back as Rome in the fourth century in the famous Lycurgus cup made of dichroic glass as well as the ninth century.

3.The therapeutic use of gold can be traced back to Chinese medical history in 2500 BC. 4. Swarna Bhasma and Roupya Bhasma is still used in the Indian ayurvedic and Unani medicine for rejuvenation, revitalization and for treating various diseases.

5.Michael Faraday in 1857 provided the first scientific description of the properties of nanoparticles in his famous paper “Experimental relations of gold (and other metals) to light”. This was probably the first rationalized report on the purposeful synthesis of colloidal gold nanoparticles.

6. The term colloid was coined by Thomas Graham (1861) for suspended particles in liquid medium and was categorized to be in the size range 1 nm to few micrometers.