The capacity to engineer matter at the nanoscale and to design materials whose structure, not their chemistry, gives them properties nature does not supply.
The Capability Development Index tracks the events that move a capability — operational use, technical breakthroughs, procurement decisions and the industrial base behind them — and places each on the record with the date it happened.
Recent developments cover the current period. Historical developments are the inflection points that produced Nanomaterials & Metamaterials as it stands today.
The glass cup, coloured green in reflected light and red when lit from within, owes its effect to gold and silver nanoparticles dispersed through the glass, an early if unintentional use of nanoscale materials engineering.
The first decade of the twentieth century saw the earliest direct observation and measurement of nanoparticle sizes. This established the metrological basis on which later nanomaterials characterisation depended, with a foundational book published in 1914.
Over the twentieth century, interface and colloid science produced a body of methods for characterising finely divided matter. These techniques were later inherited by nanomaterials research as standard characterisation tools.
Steinitz applied micro-indentation to measure the hardness of microparticles. The approach was the direct ancestor of nanoindentation, now used to measure elastic properties of particles at around the five-micron level.
In a lecture to the American Physical Society titled There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom, the physicist argued there was no fundamental barrier to arranging individual atoms, a talk widely credited as nanotechnology's conceptual starting point.
The Japanese engineer used the word to describe manufacturing precision at the nanometre scale, giving the emerging field a name more than a decade before atomic-scale manipulation became practically possible.
The Soviet physicist observed size-dependent optical properties in nanoscale crystals embedded in glass, a phenomenon later developed into the colloidal quantum dots used today in displays and medical imaging.
The instrument, built at IBM's Zurich laboratory, produced the first images of individual atoms on a surface and gave researchers a practical way to observe and eventually manipulate matter at the atomic scale.
Richard Smalley, Robert Curl, James Heath, Sean O'Brien and Harold Kroto prepared the first fullerene, buckminsterfullerene (C60), at Rice University. The spherical carbon-60 molecule, found in laboratory experiments simulating carbon chemistry in stars, gave the fullerene family its name and established fullerenes as a third major form of carbon alongside diamond and graphite, opening a new class of carbon nanostructures foundational to nanoscale research.
The instrument measured surface forces at the atomic scale without requiring an electrically conductive sample, extending nanoscale imaging and manipulation to a far broader range of materials than the scanning tunnelling microscope allowed.
The Japanese researcher's electron microscope observations at NEC identified cylindrical carbon structures with remarkable strength and electrical properties, launching sustained global research into carbon nanotubes as a structural and electronic material.
The federal programme coordinated funding across agencies for nanoscale science and engineering research, becoming a model that other governments, including Japan, Germany and later China, followed with their own national nanotechnology strategies.
ISO/TS 80004 defines a nanomaterial as having any external, internal or surface structure in the nanoscale, defined as roughly 1 to 100 nm. The standard provided the shared vocabulary underpinning research, trade and regulation in the field.
Fullerenes came under study for binding antibiotics to resistant bacteria and targeting cancer cells such as melanoma. This marked the extension of engineered nanostructures into nanomedicine.
Working at the University of Manchester, the physicists used adhesive tape to peel single-atom-thick layers from graphite, producing a material with exceptional strength and electrical conductivity that opened a new field of two-dimensional materials research.
Chinese manufacturers, concentrated in hubs such as Qingdao and Changzhou, continued to account for most of the world's graphene and carbon nanotube output, supplying conductive additives for batteries and a growing range of composite materials.
The state research institute continued work on nanoscale fabrication techniques with applications in flexible electronics, sensors and semiconductor packaging, part of Singapore's longstanding investment in advanced materials science.
The Saudi institution continued to grow its nanotechnology research programmes, part of a wider national push to build advanced materials expertise and diversify the economy away from oil under Vision 2030.
Firms supplying battery manufacturers continued developing silicon-based nanostructured anode materials intended to increase energy density beyond what conventional graphite anodes allow in electric vehicle batteries.
Companies including major domestic paper producers increased output of wood-derived nanocellulose, marketed as a lightweight, high-strength additive for plastics, cosmetics and packaging, building on Japan's lead in the material.
The Indian cooperative continued scaling production of nano urea and nano DAP, liquid fertilisers using nanoscale particles to improve nutrient uptake, and pursued approval and sales in additional overseas markets.
Smaller successor initiatives continued to support graphene and related two-dimensional material research groups across the bloc after the billion-euro programme's ten-year funding period ended.
Member country regulators worked through the organisation's working party on manufactured nanomaterials to align testing methods and risk assessment approaches, seeking consistency as more nanomaterial-containing products reached consumer markets.
Manufacturers and importers faced continuing obligations to register and safety-test distinct nanoforms of substances under REACH, adding compliance requirements for companies producing or using engineered nanomaterials within the bloc.
Federal funding continued to support university and national laboratory research into two-dimensional materials, nanoscale fabrication techniques and nanomedicine, sustaining a research base built up over two decades under the National Nanotechnology Initiative.
The WHO issued guidance at the end of 2017 on occupational risks from manufactured nanomaterials, with an update anticipated in 2022. It was a first international attempt to govern the health and safety dimension of nanomaterials manufacturing, though quantitative exposure limits remained undetermined for most nanomaterials as of 2016.
Nanotechnology-based air purification was used in Saudi Arabian hospitals to combat the spread of MERS. It illustrates early operational deployment of nanomaterials in public health infrastructure.
The Commission defined a nanomaterial for regulatory purposes as a natural, incidental or manufactured material in which 50% or more of particles by number size distribution have an external dimension between 1 and 100 nm. This gave regulators an operational threshold for governing nanomaterials.
An article described using fullerenes as light-activated antimicrobials. It extended the applied uses of the nanomaterial into infection control.