AUSTRALIAN researchers have made a new material that could revolutionise the electronics market with thinner, faster and lighter gadgets.

Others are using nano-inspired technology to detect cancers, deliver drugs into the bloodstream, explore for oil and gas in an environmentally friendly way, enhance security, purify water and make prosthetics.

Who knows what they could do next?

Australian researchers want to remain among the world leaders of innovation and to snare a hefty share of the global nanotechnology product market that's tipped to be worth $3 trillion by 2020.

Nanotechnology has become a priority area for development and funding in many nations, including China.

And the sector appears to offer endless opportunities for different fields to team up to exploit the fact that seemingly stable materials develop weird and wonderful properties in the nano form.

Gold, for example, has scientists excited and not for its more than $US1600 an ounce price tag.

RMIT University's Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) Suresh Bhargava says for centuries gold has been defined as a noble metal, or a stable one that's resistant to corrosion and oxidisation.

"But the same metal, when it comes to nano forms, is full of fantastic properties," Professor Bhargava says.

Nano sizes can be easier to comprehend when people realise a human hair is about 80,000 times bigger than a nano particle, the molecular biologist says.

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Australian nanotechnology is revolutionary