NANOMETRE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does nanometre mean? 

• NANOMETRE (noun)
  The noun NANOMETRE has 1 sense:

1. a metric unit of length equal to one billionth of a meter

  Familiarity information: NANOMETRE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NANOMETRE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A metric unit of length equal to one billionth of a meter

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

micromillimeter; micromillimetre; millimicron; nanometer; nanometre; nm

Hypernyms ("nanometre" is a kind of...):

metric linear unit (a linear unit of distance in metric terms)

Meronyms (parts of "nanometre"):

A; angstrom; angstrom unit (a metric unit of length equal to one ten billionth of a meter (or 0.0001 micron); used to specify wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation)

Holonyms ("nanometre" is a part of...):

micrometer; micron (a metric unit of length equal to one millionth of a meter)

Domain region:

Britain (a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles; divided into England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland; 'Great Britain' is often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom)

Canada (a nation in northern North America; the French were the first Europeans to settle in mainland Canada)

 Context examples 

Particles smaller than 50 nanometres in diameter have a substantial influence on cloud formation in the Amazon.

(Tiny pollutants intensify storms in the Amazon, SciDev.Net)

We introduce the catalyst into tiny vesicles or exosomes the size of about 100 nanometres, which are capable of traveling right inside the tumorous cell.

(Scientists successfully deliver “Trojan horse” catalysts into cancerous tumour cells to destroy them from within, Universities of Granada)

200 nanometres is especially significant because it is greater than the thickness of material needed to completely absorb ambient light, making these polymers more suitable as light harvesters for solar cells and photodetectors.

(Plastic crystals hold key to record-breaking energy transport, Universities of Cambridge)

It has revealed that there are macrofibril structures with a diameter exceeding 10 nanometres in both softwood and hardwood species, and confirmed they are common across all trees studied.

(Revealing the nanostructure of wood could help raise height limits for wooden skyscrapers, University of Cambridge)

Most experiments on studying spin in organic semiconductors have found that electron spins and their charges move together, and since the charges move more slowly, the spin information doesn’t go far: typically only a few tens of nanometres.

(Certain organic semiconducting materials can transport spin faster than they conduct charge, University of Cambridge)

These excitations typically only travel about 10 nanometres in plastic (or polymeric) semiconductors, so researchers need to build tiny structures patterned at the nanoscale to maximise the harvest.

(Plastic crystals hold key to record-breaking energy transport, Universities of Cambridge)

The authors of the study have found a way to induce the synthesis of catalysts (Pd nanosheets with a thickness of just over one nanometre) inside tumour cell exosomes without disturbing the properties of their membranes—thus converting the exosomes into Trojan horses capable of delivering the catalyst to the progenitor cancer cells.

(Scientists successfully deliver “Trojan horse” catalysts into cancerous tumour cells to destroy them from within, Universities of Granada)

Samples were snap-frozen down to minus 200°C to preserve the cells in their live hydrated state, then coated in an ultra-thin platinum film three nanometres thick to give good visible contrast under the microscope.

(Revealing the nanostructure of wood could help raise height limits for wooden skyscrapers, University of Cambridge)

Dr Michael Price of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory measured the distance that the photo-exited states travelled, which reached distances of 200 nanometres – 20 times further than was previously possible.

(Plastic crystals hold key to record-breaking energy transport, Universities of Cambridge)

The gain in efficiency would actually be for two reasons: first, because the energetic particles travel further, they are easier to harvest, and second, we could now incorporate layers around 100 nanometres thick, which is the minimum thickness needed to absorb all the energy from light – the so-called optical absorption depth.

(Plastic crystals hold key to record-breaking energy transport, Universities of Cambridge)