História da nanociência em uma perspectiva kuhniana: da invenção dos fulurenos à descoberta do grafeno

Abstract

Nanoscience is a scientific field related to solid state physics, in which researchers are dedicated to the theoretical study of structural and electronic properties of nanostructures, their ways of getting and its applications. Nanoscience has emerged with the advent of buckminsterfullerene, or C60, a molecule composed of 60 carbon atoms, whose theoretical model was proposed in 1985. In 1990 its existence was finally proven, thanks to the discovery of a method allowing to obtain macroscopic quantities of the compound, as well as other molecules of the family of fullerenes. This discovery led to another, that of carbon nanotubes in 1991, whose structural and electronic properties promise, still cause a revolution in various fields from different areas of technology, from materials science to biochemistry. This paper will analyze the history of the emergence of nanosciencefrom the perspective of the concept of lexicon of Thomas Kuhn, by an analogy between the development of biological species and the development of the field, along the lines that the American author proposes in his later writings.