The Institute of Technology for Nanostructures (NST) is concerned with the production and electrotechnical application of nanoscale materials. Nanomaterials comprise structural sizes below 100nm and are thus larger than atoms but smaller than usual (micro-)crystallites and the wavelength of visible light.​​

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As shown in the figure above, many physical processes take place on this scale: The mean free path length for electrons and phonons (lattice vibrations), for example, is typically in this range. Energy transfer mechanisms or quantum confinement phenomena can be observed on this length scale as well as, for example, the electrochemical bilayers on battery electrodes or the quantum mechanical tunneling process through energy barriers. Many electrotechnically relevant properties such as charge carrier mobility, thermal conductivity, optical emission-absorption behavior, energy transfer and storage processes, spin coupling, etc. can therefore be influenced by structures of this magnitude.

The Institute of Technology for Nanostructures is currently active in the following research areas under more or less independent leadership: synthesis of nanoparticles, printable electronics, thermoelectrics, photovoltaics.