Description

Nanotechnology is a field of technology that is
described as the control and manipulation of matter in
the 1 to 100 nanometer (nm) range. A nanometer is one
billionth of a meter, or one millionth of a millimeter. To
put it in perspective, an average sheet of copier paper
is about 100,000 nanometers thick so a nanometer
is 100,000th the thickness of a piece of copier paper.
Certain materials, when prepared at nanoscale levels,
display different physical and chemical properties
than those of the same materials prepared on a
larger scale. In this activity, students synthesize silver
nanoparticles from silver nitrate. The particles are
synthesized in glucose and starch, as opposed to the
more hazardous reagents typically employed. There
are enough materials for 15 groups. Teacher’s manual
and student copy masters are included.