Nucleation and Phase Separation in Nanovolumes

Diffusion-Controlled Solid State Reactions. Andriy M. Gusak Copyright 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH Co. KGaA, Weinheim ISBN 978-3-527-40884-9 

Most practical applications of nanomaterials will require large quantities of a suitable powder product. One of the fundamental problems in nanoscience is the 

Altogether, one can presume that, from the viewpoint of structural stability, four fundamental problems should be addressed (i) the effect of size on the properties of nanosystems (ii) the effect of defects in nanomaterials on their internal structures (iii) the evolution of nanomaterials at the beginning of their synthesis, (iv) the stability of nanosystems under varying external conditions and fields. All these problems have not been completely solved yet both from theoretical and experimental points of view. 

There are two main types of unique properties associated with DSs (i) novel optical, electrical, and magnetic properties due to quantum confinement effects and (ii) changes in surface and physicochemical properties due to smaller physical dimensions. In our analysis here, we will concentrate on the second type of finite-size effects. 

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