Nanostructures on substrates include one or more nanofeatures having unscathed walls and width dimensions of forty-five nm or less. The nanofeatures may include at least one of a nanotrench, nanocapillary, nano-chemical pattern, and nanowire. The nanostructures may include a nano object with a pattern of nano elements. A nano system may include at least one nano system device, which may include at least one nanofeature. A method of forming nanofeatures on substrates includes placing a nano-templating element on the substrate. A masking material is deposited at an acute angle to form shadow gaps on shadowed regions of the substrate. The nano-templating element, the angle, and other factors may be selected to form shadow gaps having width dimensions less than 10 nm. The substrate may be chemically modified in the areas corresponding to the shadow gaps to create nanofeatures with unscathed walls having width dimensions of less than 10 nm.