Nanotechnology: Opportunities for chemical engineering

Recent significant advances in nanoscience and technology offer many new opportunities for chemical engineering, since chemistry plays an important role in the nano world. As discoveries in the nano world are making their way to the market place, chemical engineers should capitalize on their chemical and processing knowledge and apply them to the nano systems, particularly in devising cost-effective processes for high volume.. high quality production. In this article, a few literature examples are presented to illustrate recent developments in chemical synthesis of nanospheres, nanocapsules, and carbon nanotubes, and of applications with nanostructures for adsorption and separation, nanovessels for drug delivery, and nanostructures for catalysis. The examples serve to illustrate potential roles of chemical engineering in their development and opportunities for the future.