Novel Building Blocks for Nanotechnology: Applications and Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

Nanostructured systems and materials find broad and versatile applications in chemistry and various fields of technology. When highlighting the methods used to build such systems and materials, two different approaches can be envisioned: the top-down approach, whose idea is the miniaturization of macroscopic structures and systems towards a nanoscale size, and the bottom-up approach, where atoms and molecules constitute the building nanoblocks and are considered as the starting point to build desired nanostructures. Thus, when considering the design of novel building blocks for nanotechnology, we can focus, first of all, on different types of nanoparticles (NPs) which have served for a long time as the fundamental building blocks for various nanotechnology applications. NPs are characterized by an immense surface area, a high proportion of atoms in their surface and near-surface layers, and the ability to exhibit quantum constraint effects. Furthermore, they exist in the form of metals, metal oxides, semiconductors, polymers, carbon materials, etc., and also exhibit great morphological diversity, with them forming shapes such as spheres, cylinders, disks, platelets, hollow spheres, tubes, etc. NPs can be surface functionalized in order to be used for specific applications. However, various molecular building blocks for nanotechnology are of great importance and research interest as well. Among them, molecular systems such as porphyrins and core-modified porphyrinoids, fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, borane and heteroborane clusters, polymer nanofibers, nanodiamonds, etc., should be mentioned.

We invite leading experts and researchers in this field to submit original research papers, comprehensive reviews, and communications addressing any of the topics listed below:

• Metal, metal oxide, semiconductor, polymeric nanoparticles, graphene and graphene oxide quantum dots, carbon quantum dots, fullerenes, and carbon nanotubes as nanotechnology building blocks: their history of development, design, syntheses, characterization, and computational studies;
• Porphyrinoids and core-modified porphyrinoids, borane and heteroborane clusters/nanoparticles, polymer nanofiber, nanodiamonds, etc., as nanotechnology building blocks: peculiarities of their design, syntheses, and characterization, including computational research;
• Metalloaromatic and metalloboron aromatic clusters as nanotechnology building blocks: computational and experimental studies;
• The surface functionalization of graphene, metal, metal oxide, and semiconductor nanoparticles;
• Applications of novel building blocks for nanotechnology: catalysis, medicine, electronics, novel materials, etc.
• Future perspectives: the development of novel nanoparticles and surface functionalization approaches, the computational design of nanoparticles, etc.

We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Dr. Aleksey E. Kuznetsov
Guest Editor

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• nanoparticles
• building blocks
• chemistry
• technology applications
• nanotechnology
• molecular building blocks