A new book series edited by a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa professor will have a big impact on a field studying the smallest of particles.
Department of Physics and Astronomy Professor Klaus Sattler’s 21st Century Nanoscience: A Handbook is considered the most comprehensive work in the field of nanoscience, which has developed into a major research area with the production and study of materials on the smallest scale.
“21st Century Nanoscience: A Handbook will be of value for a very broad readership, from students and instructors to professionals in the industry,” Sattler said. “Its interdisciplinary content should help engineers and scientists, such as physicists, chemists, biologists, biomedical researchers, industry professionals, governmental scientists, and others whose life and work are related to nanotechnology. It will be an indispensable resource in academic, government and industry libraries worldwide.”
More about nanoscience
One nanometer (nm) is a billionth of a meter. A red blood cell, for example, is about 7,000 nm wide and much smaller is the strand of DNA, which has a diameter of 2.5 nm. The nanoscale is the size range between approximately one to a few hundred nanometers. The coronavirus has a size of 125 nm and falls into this size range.
Many experiments have discovered that the physical and chemical properties of materials substantially change from the macroscale to the nanoscale. Their atomic and electronic structures generally change leading to different colors, conductivity, melting temperatures, hardness, etc. For example, the color of macroscopic gold is yellow, but in the 10–100 nm range, gold particles become red, purple or green depending on their size and shape.
The synthesis of nanomaterials started around 1980 with the first production of metal clusters and inert gas clusters by Sattler’s research group. Since then, nanoscience has become a multidisciplinary field including scientists from many fields including physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, computer science and engineering.
More on the handbook
21st Century Nanoscience: A Handbook has 10 volumes with 518 science contributors, 4,142 pages and 2,917 illustrations. It took four and a half years to produce, with three publication and production firms involved. The handbook covers a variety of topics including the properties of nanomaterials, design strategies, nanomedicine, food nanoscience and nanoscience education. Visit this website to purchase the handbook.
Sattler manages a laboratory for nanoscience at UH Mānoa. He is also the editor of sister references 7-volume Handbook of Nanophysics (2010), Carbon Nanomaterials Sourcebook (2016) and Silicon Nanomaterials Sourcebook (2017), as well as Fundamentals of Picoscience (2014).
This handbook is an example of UH Mānoa’s goal of Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise (PDF), one of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Strategic Plan (PDF), updated in December 2020.
- Related UH News stories:
- Nanosilicon resource published by Klaus Sattler, November 15, 2017
- Klaus Sattler publishes carbon nanomaterials sourcebook, May 11, 2016
- First book on picoscience published by UH professor, November 1, 2013
—By Marc Arakaki
