V century BC, Greek philosopher Democritus (father of nanotechnology): first used the word "atom" to describe the smallest particle of matter

1905, Swiss physicist Albert Einstein: published a scientific paper in which he showed that a sugar molecule is about 1 nm in size

1931, German physicists Max Knoll and Ernst Ruska: created an electron microscope, which for the first time allowed the study of nanoobjects

1968, Alfred Cho and John Arthur: employees of the scientific division of the American company Bell, developed the theoretical foundations of nanotechnology in surface treatment historical milestones in the development of nanotechnology

1974, Japanese physicist Norio Taniguchi: introduced the word "nanotechnology" into scientific circulation, which he proposed to name mechanisms less than 1 micron in size

1981, Swiss physicists Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer: a scanning tunneling microscope device that allows one to influence matter at the atomic level. Nobel Peace Prize in Physics for the creation of a tunneling microscope (1986)

1985, American physicists Robert Curl, Harold Kroto, Richard Smaley: created a technology that makes it possible to accurately measure objects with a diameter of one nanometer 1986, American physicists Gerd Binning, Calvin Quaite and Christopher Gerber: a scanning atomic force microscope was created that allows interaction with any materials, and not only with those conducting historical milestones in the formation of nanotechnology

1986, American futurist Eric Drexler: published a book in which he predicted that nanotechnology would soon begin to develop actively. Nanotechnology became known to the general public

1989, Donald Eigler, an employee of IBM, posted the name of his company with 35 xenon atoms 1993, the USA began to award the Feynman Prize, which is named after the physicist Richard Feynman, who in 1959 gave a prophetic speech about it in a lecture "There is plenty of space on the bottom" that many scientific problems will be solved only when scientists learn to work at the atomic level.

In 1965, Feynman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "For his research in the field of quantum electrodynamics" (now it is one of the fields of nanoscience)

1998, Dutch physicist Sees Decker: created a nanotransistor based on nanotechnology 1999, American physicists James Tour and Mark Reed: determined that a single molecule can behave in the same way as molecular chains

2000, the US Administration supported the creation of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. Nanotechnology research received state funding, the first tranche of which amounted to $ 500 million.

In 2002, the appropriation was increased to $ 604 million. In 2003, the Initiative requested $ 710 million.

In 2004, the US government decided to increase research funding to $ 3.7 billion.
Overall, global investment in nano in 2004 amounted to about $ 12 billion.

In 2010, physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov from the University of Manchester in the UK received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discoveries in the field of graphene applications.

In 2018, scientists at the Teslar Scientific and Industrial Association developed a technology called "Green" graphene. This is a nature-like technology for processing waste of all types (including toxic ones) into environmentally friendly nanomaterials with desired properties (graphene and nanomaterials based on it).

2020, Scientists in the Applied Physics Program at Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA reported on progress in the technology for converting carbon-containing waste to graphene. The technology is called "Flash" graphene.