The emerging science of objects that are intermediate in size between a few nanometers to less than 100 nanometers, that can be fabricated by current photolithography is Nanoscience . Particularly interesting classes of nanostructures in chemistry includes colloids , polymer molecules , buckytubes , silicon nanorods , compound semiconductor quantum dots and micelles . Chemists not so soon ago realized that chemistry is already playing a leading role in nanotechnology and that, it is the ultimate nanotechnology . New forms of matter are made by chemical synthesis with remarkable economy and safety, by joining atoms and groups of atoms together with bonds. Although nanoelectronics gained initial interest in nanotechnology , the first new and potentially commercial technologies to emerge from revolutionary nanoscience seem, in fact, to be in materials science , produced from chemical processes . The invention and development of materials whose properties depend on nanoscale structure was contributed by Chemistry . Ultimately Chemistry and chemical engineering will be important in producing materials productively, economically, and in quantity.