Self-Cleaning Building Materials a Possible Weapon in Fight Against Smog

This technology sounds like a real boon to keeping cities clean: Self-Cleaning Building Materials a Possible Weapon in Fight Against Smog, but I have to take issue with the writer’s exploitation of the term nanotechnology. He claims that “Research in the field has been made possible by the revolution in nanotechnology - science dedicated to building materials from the molecular level” but then goes on to say that, “The catalytic properties of titanium dioxide become active when it is applied in a very thin layer, or in microscopic particles.”

So, is it nanotechnology or not? Sounds like microtechnology to me!

Nanotechnology isn’t just a random term meaning really small stuff, it specifies particles in a specific size range. It’s sloppy use of prefixes like micro and nano that gets non-specialist journalists and readers into trouble and renders the newsprint they’re published in as so much grey goo.

For an explanation of micro pico nano atto femto and the rest, check out my ramblings on the subject on www.sciencebase.com