Nanostructuring Materials towards Conventionally Unachievable Combination of Desired Properties

Nanostructuring Materials towards Conventionally Unachievable Combination of Desired Properties

When the size of a particle or the size of grains in a solid is reduced to the nanometer scale, unusual changes in its properties may occur. For example, a nano-sized particle of silica could be electrically conductive while a silver particle may become non-conductive when its size is smaller than 20 nm, which are ascribed to the surface effect and spatial confinement to electrons. Supermagnetism can be obtained when the size of a ferromagnetic particle is reduced to nanometer scale at which only a single domain exists. Such variations in property with object’s dimensional reduction at nanometer scale provide great opportunities to tailor materials for superior properties that cannot be achieved using conventional techniques.