Metal oxide charges mechanical properties

With the advent of synthetic methods to produce more advanced model systems (cluster- or nanoparticle-based systems either in the gas phase or on planar surfaces), we come to the modern age of surface chemistry and heterogeneous catalysis. Castleman and coworkers demonstrate the large influence that charge, size, and composition of metal oxide clusters generated in the gas phase can have on the mechanism of a catalytic reaction. Rupprechter (Chap. 15) reports on the stmctural and catalytic properties of planar noble metal nanocrystals on thin oxide support films in vacuum and under high-pressure conditions. The theme of model systems of nanoparticles supported on planar metal oxide substrates is continued with a chapter on the formation of planar catalyst based on size-selected cluster deposition methods. In a second contribution from Rupprecther (Chap. 17), the complexities of surface chemistry and heterogeneous catalysis on metal oxide films and nanostructures, where the extension of the bulk structure to the surface often does not occur and the surface chemistry is often dominated by surface defects, are discussed. 

Organic polymers that possess the electronic, magnetic, and optical properties of metals are known as conductive polymers (CPs). Because of their conjugated u electron backbones, they can be oxidized or reduced more easily and more reversibly than conventional polymers with charge-transfer agents, also commonly called dopants, a term borrowed from condensed matter physics. While retaining some of the mechanical properties of polymers, they do not melt or dissolve in common organic solvents, a major impediment to their widespread commercialization in the same manner as traditional plastics. The same electronic structure that confers electrical conductivity to these polymers also contributes to their intractability and instability. 

---