Nanotechnology and Textiles

The research and development of nanotechnology is very active globally and has real commercial potential for the textile industry. The ‘nano’ in nanotechnology comes from the Greek word ‘nanos’ that means dwarf. Scientists use this prefix to indicate 10-9 or one billionth. One nanometer is one billionth meter that is about 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a single human hair. Nanotechnology is called a “bottom up” technology by which bulk materials can be built precisely in tiny building blocks, different from traditional manufacture “top down” technology. Therefore, resultant materials have fewer defects and higher quality. This book presents an overview of the classifications of nanomaterials and their use in the textile field.