Nanophase components in nanoscale materials

[eprparadox]

Hello,

I'm self-studying a book on nanomedicine and in it, there is the following quote:

"Nanoscale materials in general include hard and soft, wet and
dry, and biotic and abiotic materials that are either nanostructured, or contain
nanoscale and nanophase components."

I guess my question is simply, what is a nanophase component? Why is it called nanophase? and what is different about it as it compares to just a nanoscale component?

Wikiepedia didn't have much and I'm curious. Thanks a lot ahead of time.

 

[Navin A S]

A nanophase component is a nanoscale material that has been altered or modified in some way to make it more useful. This modification can be either physical or chemical in nature. This alteration allows the nanophase component to have different properties than the original nanoscale material, such as increased strength, improved electrical or thermal conductivity, or increased chemical reactivity. The term nanophase is derived from the fact that these components are small enough to exist at the nanoscale level and thus interact with other molecules on a nanoscale.