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Materials, nanotechnology and advanced manufacturing

Materials and how they are made: nanomaterials and their uses in health, smart and advanced materials, composites, technical textiles, and 3D printing. Prelims has asked about nanotechnology in health, the uses of geotextiles and the applications of 3D printing.

UPSC has asked

Prelims 2018: applications of 3D printing
Prelims 2015: nanotechnology in health, targeted drug delivery and gene therapy

No subject here changed from 16 to 31 August 2026.Show all

Lab grown diamond: A diamond grown in a reactor, chemically identical to a mined stone rather than an imitation of it.

Kimberley Process: An international certification scheme meant to keep conflict diamonds, mined to pay for war, out of the legitimate trade.

Geotextile: A permeable fabric used with soil to separate, filter, drain, reinforce or protect it.

Thermoelectric material: A material that turns a temperature difference directly into electricity, the Seebeck effect.

zT: The thermoelectric figure of merit; higher is better.

Piezoelectric material: A material, such as quartz, that produces electrical charge when pressed, bent or otherwise stressed.

Chiral self-assembly: Molecules arranging themselves, unaided, into a handed structure that cannot be superposed on its mirror image.

Bioceramics: Ceramic materials the body accepts, used to repair bone and teeth, some absorbed as new bone grows.