Relationship Mechanical Engineering and Nanotechnology

[Fernando Rios]

I got a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and I am now doing a PhD in Nanotechnology in which I am synthesizing a nanomaterial. Someone just told me that nanotechnology is more like mechanical engineering and materials engineering than any other thing. Based on my work I can see the relationship between nanotechnology and materials science, but I can see its relationship with mechanical engineering. Can someone tell me the relationship if any?

 

[ModestyKing]

Particularly in thin films synthesis using substrates, a difference between the lattice constant of the material you want grown and the substrate can induce stress in the material being grown (or strain). This can effect the resulting material. Maybe knowing some mechanical engineering makes that easier to understand. There's also the different machines used for different thin film synthesis techniques - do you know how to build a machine that induces a near-vacuum environment? If so, that's some good background. There's also some research, I'm not sure if it's with piezoelectric materials or not, but you can make thin strips or films of a material that flex or bend when an electric current is applied, and could potentially serve as actuators to really small devices.

Other than that, I don't see the connection, really!