Nanostructure Science and Technology – serie

Nanostructures refer to materials that have relevant dimensions on the nanometer length scales and reside in the mesoscopic regime between isolated atoms and molecules in bulk matter. These materials have unique physical properties that are distinctly different from bulk materials. Self-Assembled Nanostructures provides systematic coverage of basic nanomaterials science including materials assembly and synthesis, characterization, and application. Suitable for both beginners and experts, it balances the chemistry aspects of nanomaterials with physical principles. It also highlights nanomaterial-based architectures including assembled or self-assembled systems. Filled with in-depth discussion of important applications of nano-architectures as well as potential applications ranging from physical to chemical and biological systems, Self-Assembled Nanostructures is the essential reference or text for scientists involved with nanostructures.

With the recent advent of nanotechnology, research and development in the area of nanostructured materials has gained unprecedented prominence. Novel materials with potentially exciting new applications are being discovered at a much higher rate than ever before. Innovative tools to fabricate, manipulate, characterize and evaluate such materials are being developed and expanded. To keep pace with this extremely rapid growth, it is necessary to take a breath from time to time, to critically assess the current knowledge and provide thoughts for future developments. This book represents one of these moments, as a number of prominent scientists in nanostructured materials join forces to provide insightful reviews of their areas of expertise, thus offering an overall picture of the state-- the art of the field. Nanostructured materials designate an increasing number of materials with designed shapes, surfaces, structures, pore systems, etc. Nanostructured materials with modified surfaces include those whose surfaces have been altered via such techniques as grafting and tethering of organic or organometallic species, or through various deposition procedures including electro, electroless and vapor deposition, or simple adsorption. These materials find important applications in catalysis, separation and environmental remediation. Materials with patterned surfaces, which are essential for the optoelectronics industry, constitute another important class of surface-modified nanostructured materials. Other materials are considered nanostructured because of their composition and internal organization.

A physics book that covers the optical properties of quantum-confined semiconductor nanostructures from both the theoretical and experimental points of view together with technological applications. Topics to be reviewed include quantum confinement effects in semiconductors, optical adsorption and emission properties of group IV, III-V, II-VI semiconductors, deep-etched and self assembled quantum dots, nanoclusters, and laser applications in optoelectronics.

Good old Gutenberg could not have imagined that his revolutionary printing concept which so greatly contributed to dissemination of knowledge and thus today 's wealth, would have been a source of inspiration five hundred years later. Now, it seems intuitive that a simple way to produce a large number of replicates is using a mold to emboss pattern you need, but at the nanoscale nothing is simple: the devil is in the detail. And this book is about the "devil". In the following 17 chapters, the authors-all of them well recognized and active actors in this emerging field-describe the state-of-the-art, today 's technological bottlenecks and the prospects for micro-contact printing and nanoimprint lithography. Many results of this book originate from projects funded by the European Com­ mission through its "Nanotechnology Information Devices" (NID) initiative. NID was launched with the objective to develop nanoscale devices for the time when the red­ brick scenario of the ITRS roadmap would be reached. It became soon clear however, that there was no point to investigate only alternative devices to CMOS, but what was really needed was an integrated approach that took into account more facets of this difficult undertaking. Technologically speaking , this meant to have a coherent strategy to develop novel devices, nanofabrication tools and circuit & system architectures at the same time.

The integration of top-down lithographic techniques with synthetic organic and inorganic technologies is a key challenge for the development of effective nanosca1e devices. In terms of assembly, nanoparticles provide an excellent tool for bridging the gap between the resolution of electron beam lithography (-60 nm) and the molecular level. Nanoparticles possess an array of unique properties associated with their core materials, including distinctive magnetic, photonic and electronic behavior. This behavior can be controlled and applied through monolayer functionalization and assembly strategies, making nanoparticles both scaffolds and building blocks for nanotechnology. The diverse structures and properties of nanoparticles makes them useful tools for both fundamental studies and pragmatic applications in a range of disciplines. This volume is intended to provide an integrated overview of the synthesis and assembly of nanoparticles, and their applications in chemistry, biology, and materials science. The first three chapters focus on the creation and intrinsic properties of nanoparticles, covering some of the myriad core materials and shapes that have been created. The remaining chapters of the book discuss the assembly of nanoparticles, and applications of both discrete particles and particle assemblies in a wide range of fields, including device and sensor fabrication, catalysis, biology, and nanosca1e electronic and magnetic systems.

Catalysts, heterogeneous, homogeneous and enzyme, are usually nanoparticles. These are of vital for the functioning of the human body, for photosynthesis, and for producing fuels and chemicals in the petroleum and chemical industries. Interest in nanoscience and in nanotechnology in recent years focused attention on the opportunity to develop catalysts that exhibit 100% selectivity for a desired product, thus removing byproducts and eliminating waste. This type of selective process is often called green chemistry or green technology. This book is mainly based on the first and second symposia on Nanotechnology 51 in Catalysis which were held in spring 2001 at the ACS 221 National Meeting in San Diego, CA, and in fall 2002 at the ACS 2241h National Meeting in Boston, MA, respectively. We also extended our invitation to those who did not attend the meetings to contribute chapters where we saw a need to round out the scope of the topic. All chapters were peer-reviewed prior to final acceptance. We believe that the additional chapters and the peer-review significantly improved the quality of the book. In the summer of 2000 when we first proposed to organize a symposium on Nanotechnology in Catalysis to the ACS Secretariat of Catalysis and Surface Science (CATL), we received strong support from Dr. Nancy B. Jackson, then General Secretary of CATL. The symposium was enthusiastically received by the catalysis community. On the first day of the symposium, the conference room could not hold all the attendees.

The history of the liquid-liquid interface on the earth might be as old as that of the liquid. It is plausible that the generation of the primitive cell membrane is responsible for an accidental advent of the oldest liquid interfaces, since various compounds can be concentrated by an adsorption at the interface. The presence of liquid-liquid interface means that real liquids are far from ideal liquids that must be miscible with any kinds of liquids and have no interface. Thus it can be said that the non-ideality of liquids might generate the liquid-liquid interface indeed and that biological systems might be generated from the non-ideal interface. The liquid-liquid interface has been, therefore, studied as a model of biological membrane. From pairing two-phases of gas, liquid and solid, nine different pairs can be obtained, which include three homo-pairs of gas-gas, liquid-liquid and solid-solid pairs. The gas-gas interface, however, is practically no use under the ordinary conditions. Among the interfaces produced by the pairing, the liquid-liquid interface is most slippery and difficult to be studied experimentally in comparison with the gas-liquid and solid-liquid interfaces, as the liquid-liquid interface is flexible, thin and buried between bulk liquid phases. Therefore, in order to study the liquid-liquid interface, the invention of innovative measurement methods has a primary importance.

The combination of biological elements with electronics is of great interest for many research areas. Inspired by biological signal processes, scientists and engineers are exploring ways of manipulating, assembling, and applying biomolecules and cells on integrated circuits, joining biology with electronic devices. The overall goal is to create bioelectronic devices for biosensing, drug discovery, and curing diseases, but also to build new electronic systems based on biologically inspired concepts. This research area called bioelectronics requires a broad interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach to biology and material science. Even though at the frontier of life science and material science, bioelectronics has achieved in the last years many objectives of scientific and industrial relevance, including aspects of electronics and biotechnology. Although the first steps in this field combined biological and electronic units for sensor applications (e. g. , glucose oxidase on an oxygen electrode), we see now many applications in the fields of genomics, proteomics, and celomics as well as electronics. This approach challenges both the researcher and the student to learn and think outside of their zones of comfort and training. Today, one can fabricate electrically active structures that are commensurate in size with biomolecules. The advancement of nanotechnology has influenced bioelectronics to a large extent.

This volume is a selected collection of articles on different approaches to the investigation on surface effects on nanosized magnetic materials,with special emphasis to magnetic nanoparticles. The book is aimed to provide an overview of progress in the understanding of surface properties and surface driven effects in magnetic nanoparticles through recent results of different modelling, simulation and experimental investigations. Its intended audience is Ph.D. students and researchers in materials science. Magnetic nanoparticles have been the subject of continuous and growing interest, from both fundamental and technological points of view, in the last 50 years, since the pionering work of Louis Niel. Nanoparticles are unique physical objects with remarkable magnetic properties which differ greatly from their parent massive materials. They are due to finite size effects of the magnetic core, related to the reduced number of spins cooperatively linked within the particle, and to surface and interface effects, related to the lack of coordination for the surface ions, inducing broken exchange bonds which can result in frustration and spin disorder.

The high level of attention and interest of the global community to NANO science and technology to a large extent is linked to the GIGAntic challenges for the c- tinuing growth of information technology, which sparked an unprecedented level of interdisciplinary and international cooperation among industrial and academic researchers, companies, IT market rivals, and countries, including former political and military rivals . Microelectronics technologies have reached a new stage in their development: The latest miniaturization of electronic devices is approaching atomic dimensions, interconnect bottlenecks are limiting circuit speeds, new ma- rials are being introduced into microelectronics manufacture at an unprecedented rate , and alternative technologies to mainstream complementary metal-oxide sem- conductors (CMOSs) are being considered . The very dynamic stage of science and technology related to the advanced and future electronics and photonics creates a growing gap between the large number of rapid publications and nanotechnology highlights in media on one side and fundamental understanding of underlying phenomena and an adequate evaluation of scientific discoveries and technological innovations on the other side. Writing a tutorial book on fundamentals of science and technology for electronics at this time is almost the same level of challenge as writing a history book during a revolution.

Ordered porous nanostructures have emerged in the last ten years in different kinds of materials and with different pore diameters and interpore spacing. This book reviews in the first part which kinds of materials exhibit ordered nanopores and what are the physico-chemical reasons for it. In the second part, this book discusses the possible applications from photonic crystals via high-throughput screening to metallic and polymer-nanowire arrays and their use in the case of ferromagnetic wires as high-density magnetic storage medium.This book reviews the most interesting materials on the market concerning self-ordering, including: macroporous silicon, porous alumina, MCM41 and photonic bandgap materials, which is one of the hottest topics in optics and nano-technology in the last five years, according to Science magazine. In computer applications, these structures enable significantly higher storage densities than are possible with thin film media. Moreover, these structures find uses in template fabrication for nanowire-arrays, high-throughput screening, lab-on-a-chip, ULSI circuitry for trenches and capacitors.

Nanotechnology has received tremendous interest over the last decade, not only from the scientific community but also from a business perspective and from the general public. Although nanotechnology is still at the largely unexplored frontier of science, it has the potential for extremely exciting technological innovations that will have an enormous impact on areas as diverse as information technology, medicine, energy supply and probably many others. The miniturization of devices and structures will impact the speed of devices and information storage capacity. More importantly, though, nanotechnology should lead to completely new functional devices as nanostructures have fundamentally different physical properties that are governed by quantum effects. When nanometer sized features are fabricated in materials that are currently used in electronic, magnetic, and optical applications, quantum behavior will lead to a set of unprecedented properties. The interactions of nanostructures with biological materials are largely unexplored. Future work in this direction should yield enabling technologies that allows the study and direct manipulation of biological processes at the (sub) cellular level.

All real surfaces, both those occurring naturally, and those fabricated artificially and with great care, are rough to some degree. It is therefore of interest, and often of importance, to know the extent to which this roughness affects physical p- cesses occurring at a surface. A particularly interesting class of physical processes occurring at a rough surface is the scattering of electromagnetic waves from it, or their transmission through it. In this case the degree of the surface roughness is referred to the wavelength of the waves incident on it. The study of the scattering of electromagnetic waves from rough surfaces has been actively carried out for more than a century now, since Rayleigh's inves- gations of the scattering of a monochromatic plane wave incident normally on a 1 sinusoidal interface between two different media. The first theoretical treatment of the scattering of an electromagnetic wave from a randomly rough surface was due to Mandel'shtam/ in the context of the scattering of light from a liquid s- face. In these pioneering studies the angular dependence of the intensity of the scattered field was calculated by perturbation theory as an expansion in powers of the surface profile function though the first nonzero term, a single scattering approximation.

Controlling the performance of structures and components of all sizes and shapes through the use of engineered coatings has long been a key strategy in materials processing and technological design. The ever-increasing sophistication of en- neered coatings and the rapid trend toward producing increasingly smaller devices with greater demands on their fabrication, properties and performance have led to signi?cant progress in the science and technology of coatings, particularly in the last decade or two. Nanostructured coatings constitute a major area of sci- ti?c exploration and technological pursuit in this development. Withcharacteristic structural length scales on the order of a few nanometers to tens of nanometers, nanostructured coatings provide potential opportunities to enhance dramatically performance by offering, in many situations, extraordinary strength and hardness, unprecedented resistance to damage from tribological contact, and improvements in a number of functional properties. At the same time, there are critical issues and challenges in optimizing these properties with ?aw tolerance, interfacial adhesion and other nonmechanical considerations, depending on the coating systems and applications. Nanostructured coatings demand study in a highly interdisciplinary research arena which encompasses: surface and interface science study of defects modern characterization methodologies cutting-edge experimental developments to deposit,synthesize, conso- date, observe as well as chemically and mechanically probe materials at the atomic and molecular length scales state-of-the-art computational simulation techniques for developing - sightsintomaterialbehaviourattheatomicscalewhichcannotbeobtained in some cases from experiments alone The interdisclipinarynature of the subject has made it a rich playing ?eld for scienti?c innovation and technological progress.

Because of their structural and dynamical properties, microheterogeneous systems have been employed as solvent and reaction media both to synthesize and stabilize nanoparticles. Following this route, inside their nanometer-sized heterogeneities the nanoparticles of many different substances have been incorporated. The book shows the distinct advantages of this synthetic strategy over that of many other methods. Moreover, it furnishes to the reader a collection of theoretical and experimental facts allowing him to reduce the number of trial and errors necessary to arrive at an optimal synthetic protocol.

Novel system performance through nanostructuring has been recognized in many branches of science in the last decades. The requirement for inventing a new technology paradigm has created research opportunities for scientists in very wide range of disciplines. In order to fully realize the tremendous potential of nanostructure science and technology, the extremely important challenges today are how to exploit synthetic methods for structures regulated at the atomic scale and to construct materials across the hierarchy of length scales from the atomic to mesoscopic and/or to macroscopic scale. This book comprises an overview of a wide variety of different approaches towards the synthesis of nanoscale materials and the hierarchical assemblies produced from them under the common theme of self-organization mechanisms via chemical and bio-inspired methods. The book covers many of the exciting and recent developments from basic research to applications in the field of self-assembly of nanostructures that are of general interest to a broad community of established and postgraduate researchers in physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, and materials science.

Catalysts,heterogeneous,homogeneous,andenzyme,areusuallynanoparticles.These areofvitalforthefunctioningofthehumanbody,forphotosynthesis,andforproducing fuels and chemicals in the petroleum and chemical industries. Interest in nanoscience and in nanotechnology in recent years has focused attention on the opportunity to develop catalysts that exhibit 100% selectivity for a desired product, thus removing byproducts and eliminating waste. This type of selective process is often called green chemistry or green technology. This book is the third Volume of Nanotechnology in Catalysis. It is mainly based on the symposium on Nanotechnology in Catalysis III which was held in fall 2004 at th the ACS 228 National Meeting in Philadelphia, PA. Several chapters were also from the authors who did not attend the symposium. We invited a few experts in the ?eld to write on a topic which we see is needed to make the book comprehensive. It has been about 2 years since Volumes 1 and 2 were published. Many new c- tributions and breakthroughs have been made by researchers worldwide, showing the dynamics in the area of nanotechnology in catalysis.

Nanocrystalline materials exhibit the outstanding properties and represent a new class of structural materials having a wide range of applications. In particular, there is considerable interest in developing nanocrystalline materials to be used as functional materials in aerospace applications, automotive industry, wear applications, MEMS, etc. The future progress in these high technological applications of nanocrystalline materials crucially depends on development of new methods of their fabrication and understanding of the underlying nano-scale and interface effects causing their unique mechanical properties.

Over the past few decades, mankind has observed an unprecedented and remarkable growth in industry, resulting in a more prosperous lifestyle for peoples of many countries. In developing countries, however, explosive industrial growth is just now beginning to raise the living standards of the people. Most industries, especially in these developing countries, are still powered by the burning of fossil fuels; con- quently, a lack of clean energy resources has caused environmental pollution on an unprecedented large and global scale. Toxic wastes have been relentlessly released into the air and water leading to serious and devastating environmental and health problems while endangering the planet and life itself with the effects of global warming. To address these urgent environmental issues, new catalytic and photocatalytic processes as well as open-atmospheric systems are presently being developed that can operate at room temperature while being totally clean and ef?cient and thus environmentally harmonious. Essential to technologies harnessing the abundant solar energy that reaches the earth are the highly functional photocatalytic proce- es that can utilize not only UV light, but also visible light.

This work presents fundamental and other relevant properties of nanostructured materials that can be the basis of improved performance in a wide range of alternative energy devices. The book explores the intersection of two major research fields, nanostructured materials and alternative energy devices. There is integrated coverage from batteries and fuel cells to hydrogen generation and storage. The book contains chapters by world leaders in inorganic electrochemical materials. The materials and devices covered by this book promise not only the development of a wide range of new technologies, but also the potential for a more sustainable energy future.

For centuries, electrochemistry has played a key role in technologically important areas such as electroplating or corrosion. In recent decades, electrochemical methods are receiving increasing attention in important strongly growing fields of science and technology such as nanosciences (nanoelectrochemistry) and life-sciences (organic and biological electrochemistry). Characterization, modification and understanding of various electrochemical interfaces or electrochemical processes at the nanoscale, has led to a huge increase of the scientific interest in electrochemical mechanisms as well as of application of electrochemical methods in novel technologies. This book presents exciting emerging scientific and technological aspects of the introduction of the nanodimension in electrochemical approaches are presented in 12 chapters/subchapters.

Computational Methods for Nanoscale Applications: Particles, Plasmons and Waves presents new perspectives on modern nanoscale problems where fundamental science meets technology and computer modeling. This book describes well-known computational techniques such as finite-difference schemes, finite element analysis and Ewald summation, as well as a new finite-difference calculus of Flexible Local Approximation MEthods (FLAME) that qualitatively improves the numerical accuracy in a variety of problems. Application areas in the book include long-range particle interactions in homogeneous and heterogeneous media, electrostatics of colloidal systems, wave propagation in photonic crystals, photonic band structure, plasmon field enhancement, and metamaterials with backward waves and negative refraction.Computational Methods for Nanoscale Applications is accessible to specialists and graduate students in diverse areas of nanoscale science and technology, includingphysics, engineering, chemistry, and applied mathematics. In addition, several advanced topics will be of particular interest to the expert reader.Key Features:Utilizes a two-tiered style of exposition with intuitive explanation of key principles in the first tier and further technical details in the second Bridges the gap between physics and engineering and computer science Presents fundamentals and applications of computational methods, electromagnetic theory, colloidal systems and photonic structuresCovers "hot topics" in photonics, plasmonics, and metamaterials.

Nanoelectronics and Photonics: From Atoms to Materials, Devices, and Architectures provides a description of the core elements and challenges of advanced and future information technology. Tutorial chapters from leaders in the field cover fundamental topics ranging from materials to devices to system architecture. By linking the materials physics and chemistry at the atomic scale with device and circuit design and performance requirements, the book presents a coherent picture of theoretical and experimental research efforts and technology development in this highly interdisciplinary area. Short visionary articles by Nicolaas Bloembergen, Nobel Laureate in Physics (1981), Konstantin Likharev, distinguished professor at Stony Brook University, and Stanley Williams, senior fellow and director of the Quantum Science Research group at Hewlett-Packard, offer unique perspectives and insights. Nanoelectronics and Photonics is essential reading for researchers and graduate students in materials science, device physics, and electrical and computer engineering.Key Features:Provides an authoritative overview of the current status and future trends of nanoelectronics and photonicsPresents broad-ranging tutorials on both theoretical and experimental aspects of key topics in nanotechnologyWritten by recognized international experts in each areaAddresses the needs of both graduate students and nanotechnology “gurus”

In recent years, with the advent of fine line lithographical methods, molecular beam epitaxy, organometallic vapour phase epitaxy and other experimental techniques, low dimensional structures having quantum confinement in one, two and three dimensions (such as ultrathin films, inversion layers, accumulation layers, quantum well superlattices, quantum well wires, quantum wires superlattices, magneto-size quantizations, and quantum dots) have attracted much attention not only for their potential in uncovering new phenomena in nanoscience and technology, but also for their interesting applications in the areas of quantum effect devices. In ultrathin films, the restriction of the motion of the carriers in the direction normal to the film leads to the quantum size effect and such systems find extensive applications in quantum well lasers, field effect transistors, high speed digital networks and also in other quantum effect devices. In quantum well wires, the carriers are quantized in two transverse directions and only one-dimensional motion of the carriers is allowed.

In spite of the potential use of nanomaterials as tissue engineering devices, implants, biosensors, drug delivery devices, etc., there has yet to be a compilation of the risks associated with the in vivo use of nanomaterials. There are numerous and well-known risks because of the size of nanoparticles. For example, nanoparticles can cross cell membranes and enter the cytoplasm undetected.The aim of this book is to provide one of the first (if not the first) detailed views of how cells and tissues in the body deal with nanoparticles. This is important not only for implantable devices, but also for the manufacturing of nanophase materials when particles can be inhaled or enter the body through the skin. Only by compiling research at the intersection of nanoparticles and biological processes can we determine if nanophase materials are safe to be manufactured, handled, and/or implanted for various medical applications.

Recent developments in the technology of silicon nanocrystals and silicon nanostructures, where quantum-size effects are important, are systematically described including examples of device applications. Due to the strong quantum confinement effect, the material properties are freed from the usual indirect- or direct-bandgap regime, and the optical, electrical, thermal, and chemical properties of these nanocrystalline and nanostructured semiconductors are drastically changed from those of bulk silicon. In addition to efficient visible luminescence, various other useful material functions are induced in nanocrystalline silicon and periodic silicon nanostructures. Some novel devices and applications, in fields such as photonics (electroluminescence diode, microcavity, and waveguide), electronics (single-electron device, spin transistor, nonvolatile memory, and ballistic electron emitter), acoustics, and biology, have been developed by the use of these quantum-induced functions in ways different from the conventional scaling principle for ULSI.

Nanoscale science and technology is a young, promising field that encompasses a wide range of disciplines including physics, chemistry, biology, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, and materials science. With rapid advances in areas such as molecular electronics, synthetic biomolecular motors, DNA-based self-assembly, and manipulation of individual atoms, nanotechnology has captured the attention and imagination of researchers and the general public. Introduction to Nanoscale Science and Technology provides a broad and thorough introduction that is aimed specifically at undergraduate seniors and early graduate students in all of the disciplines enumerated above. It will also be of value to academic, industrial, and government researchers interested in a primer in the field. The book consists of twenty-three chapters arranged in seven sections. All chapters have been written by experts from each respective field. Exercises and general references are provided at the end of each chapter to encourage students to expand on the topics discussed in the book.

Nanoscale science and technology is a young, promising field that encompasses a wide range of disciplines including physics, chemistry, biology, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, and materials science. With rapid advances in areas such as molecular electronics, synthetic biomolecular motors, DNA-based self-assembly, and manipulation of individual atoms, nanotechnology has captured the attention and imagination of researchers and the general public. Introduction to Nanoscale Science and Technology provides a broad and thorough introduction that is aimed specifically at undergraduate seniors and early graduate students in all of the disciplines enumerated above. It will also be of value to academic, industrial, and government researchers interested in a primer in the field. The book consists of twenty-three chapters arranged in seven sections. All chapters have been written by experts from each respective field. Exercises and general references are provided at the end of each chapter to encourage students to expand on the topics discussed in the book.A CD-ROM containing color copies of all figures accompanies the book, allowing rapid preparation of lecture materials by faculty.

All of us have read about the vast potential inherent in nanotechnology and the exciting impact it has had in changing our lifestyle in the 21st century. One of the basic issues confronting us is how to fabricate devices or materials on the nano scale. What is the basic physics governing the formation of nano phases? How can biological systems inspire us to formulate nano scale architectures, in the way nature has always done and continues to do? These are two main areas of focus in this book. The aim of this reference is to take us to the root of these issues: the solid-fluid interfacial structures and the basic interactions between structural units that determine the kinetics of nano particles and assembly formation, and subsequently the resulting structures and functionalities of the nano phases and devices. By taking a fresh look at the novel nano structure engineering and surface probing technologies from a global viewpoint of fundamental principles, the two volumes of this book direct our focus from the macroscopic phase to the nano structures ranging from inorganic to bio nano materials.Featuring contributions from a number of international experts in the related fields, this book offers a comprehensive and synergistic look into these challenging issues in terms of theoretical modeling, computer simulations, advanced surface probing and fabrication and interface characterizations. The book also provides a link to the nanostructure engineering of some novel materials playing an important role in advancing technologies in this field. Volume I focuses on both the theoretical and experimental aspects of crystal surfaces and solid-fluid interfacial structures, the effect of ordering and disordering of the interfacial molecules on the kinetics of crystalline matter, and in particular on the nano crystalline phase and the formation of self-organized nanofiber networks. Expertly written chapters expand the existing knowledge on surface/interfacial structures associated with bulk phases to the micro/nano structural domain, presenting examples of the characterization and manipulation of self-organized nano structures.The subject matter covers also the principles and technologies concerning nano phases, surface/interface structure formation and characterization, and fabrication. Volume II is devoted to the assembly of bio-related nano structures and hybrid nano materials and systems. The part on bio-related nanostructures focuses on the aggregation and pattern formation of protein molecules, or biomaterials in the bulk and on the surface of designated substrates. The way to control the process of biomineralization, biological matrices, hierarchical structures and other bio-related materials by relying on robust methods, such as templating, AFM, Chemoselective Ligation, scanning probe nanolithography will also be treated in detail. In addition, innovative techniques to engineer complex nano structures such as molecular design and molecular self assembly are highlighted.