Nanotechnology progress and future opportunities: 2000–2020

Nanotechnology R&D has changed its focus, industrial relevance and governance since 2000 when was proposed in various national programs as a key science and technology development for 21st century. This presentation outlines the progress in foundational knowledge development, its current status supporting about $80 billion production incorporating nanoscale components only in the United States, and likely evolution towards a general purpose technology by 2020. Nanotechnology has already powerful implications in knowledge foundation, advanced materials, catalysts, nanoelectronics, molecular medicine, energy conversion and storage. While general trends publications, patent publications, nanotechnology market and R&D funding continue to grow at an average annual rate of about 25%, the content of research and complexity of the new applications is changing significantly about 2010. In the next decade, the focus of R&D is expected to shift to direct measurements on three-dimensional domains, science based design of fundamentally new products based on complex nanosystems, and serving new areas of relevance such as quantum information systems. An increased focus will be on system nanotechnology as applied to sustainable resources including water, food, energy, materials and clean environment.