Surface Chemistry and Nanoparticles

In the last decades, mainly due to the ability to synthesize high surface area solids, surface chemistry has experienced an extraordinary growth and has become a mature science. Materials like zeolites [10-13] or mesoporous silicas [14,15] have total surface areas (internal plus external) much higher than those of solids whose interior is not accessible. The fact that the sohds are porous and that the interior of the particles is accessible from the exterior is essential in achieving these high values of total surface area. While the external surface areas of zeolites and mesoporous silicas are similar to those values that can be achieved in amorphous silicas, it is the internal surface that makes the difference between porous and other solids. This internal surface area of micro-/meso- porous solids can be one order of magnitude larger than the external area. 

In the case of mesoporous silicas, and particularly since the first report of the synthesis of MCM-41 [14, 15], that constituted a real breakthrough in material science, it is possible to prepare materials with total surface area higher than 

The above comments serve to illustrate the possibilities offered by those solids that have a large surface area, even though in the porous solids it is mainly internal, in terms of functionalization. However, an increase in surface area also alters 

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