Nanoscale properties

In general, one should not suppose that the properties of bulk materials will apply to materials at the nanoscale level. With respect to the mechanical properties of small-scale solids, it is known that the elastic behaviour, due to bond stretching and twisting, does not vary significantly in nanoparticles compared with that in the bulk. Other properties are more sensitive. For example, the rate of diffusion creep (Nabarro-Herring and Coble creep) is dependent on grain size. Hence, creep will be enhanced in compacts of nanoparticles and in thin films. 

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Kochelaev BI, Teitel baum GB (2005) Nanoscale Properties of Superconducting Cuprates Probed by the Electron Paramagnetic Resonance 114 205-266 Kochi JK, see RosokhaSV (2007) 126 137-160 Kohler J, see Deng (2005) 114 103-141 van Koningsbruggen, see Giitlich P (2004) 107 27-76... 

Nanoscale Properties of Superconducting Cuprates Probed by the Electron Paramagnetic Resonance... 

Finally, an area that will most likely see an explosive growth over the next few years is the self-assembly of nanoparticles covered with mesogenic and pro-mesogenic capping agents. A number of different approaches have been summarized in this review, and the formation of nematic, smectic-like, cubic, and columnar phases and/or superstructures have been demonstrated. Once more, the possibilities to produce such metamaterials using nanoparticles and liquid crystal motifs are endless, and future research will surely discover other, in part, more complex phase morphologies as well as uniquely tunable nanoscale properties as a result of liquid crystal phase formation. 

Nanoparticles display large surface to volume ratios and can report on biological interaction directly from nanodispersions in biological media [59]. The intrinsic nanoscale property of the material can enable highly sensitive transduction of biointeractions. 

The synthesis routes studied provide the tools to produce carbons with different nanoscale properties. This is potentially useful for various adsorption applications given the carbons high surface areas and pore size distributions which vary according to the chosen template. 

Schatz, G. C., Using theory and computation to model nanoscale properties, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2007, 104, 6885-6892... 

The way in which the iron core in ferritin might build up and the structure of the mineral and its properties have been considered by many researchers over the years and yet there are still many questions that remain to be answered satisfactorily. From one viewpoint the subject belongs in the area of biomineralization, from a different standpoint the nanoscale properties have been of interest, and a third important area of research concerns the health aspects of iron storage and homeostasis. For this latter field the problems of too much or too little are to the fore, with iron overload disease a serious problem in much of Africa and the Middle East while in the Western world iron deficiency is more likely to be a problem. A key aspect to such health problems concerns the response of the organism to local iron levels and is regulated in healthy subjects by an iron response element (IRE) which also seems to involve metalloproteins within the so-called iron response protein. However, this has but little bearing on coordination chemistry aspects of ferritins that we are considering here whereas the chemical questions behind the mineralization processes and the measurement and interpretation of the physical properties of such nanoscale particles are of intense interest. It turns out to be helpful to consider these two aspects in tandem, as one tends to inform the other. 

Smith JF, Knowles TPJ, Dobson CM, MacPhee CE, Welland ME (2006) Characterization of the nanoscale properties of individual amyloid fibrils. Proc Natl Acad Sci 103 (43) 15806-15811... 

Bogetti, T. A., Wang, T., Van Landringham, M. R., Eduljee, R. E, and Gillespie, J. W. J. 1999. Characterization of nanoscale property variations in polymer composite systems Part 2—finite element modeling. Composites Part A 30, 85-94. 

In the next section, the deciding basic requirement for the existence and character and for the nanoscale properties of these materials—principal insolubility—will be discussed. This discussion is necessary because the vast majority of the scientific community dealing with the conductive polymers still hopes of obtaining truly soluble conductive polymers one day—a goal that has no chemical or physical basis and would, if it were realistic, prevent their use in nanotechnology. 

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