There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Although gold is the subject of one of the most ancient themes of investigation in science, its renaissance now leads to an exponentially increasing number of publications, especially in the context of emerging nanoscience and nanotechnology with nanoparticles and self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). We will limit the present review to gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), also called gold colloids. AuNPs are the most stable metal nanoparticles, and they present fascinating aspects such as their assembly of multiple types involving materials science, the behavior of the individual particles, size-related electronic, magnetic and optical properties (quantum size effect), and their applications to catalysis and biology. Their promises are in these fields as well as in the bottom-up approach of nanotechnology, and they will be key materials and building block in the 21st century. Whereas the extraction of gold started in the 5th millennium B.C. near Varna (Bulgaria) and reached 10 tons per year in Egypt around 1200-1300 B.C. when the marvelous statue of Touthankamon was constructed, it is probable that “soluble” gold appeared around the 5th or 4th century B.C. in Egypt and China. In antiquity, materials were used in an ecological sense for both aesthetic and curative purposes. Colloidal gold was used to make ruby glass 293 Chem. Rev. 2004, 104, 293−346

Gold nanoparticles: assembly, supramolecular chemistry, quantum-size-related properties, and applications toward biology, catalysis, and nanotechnology.

Multilayer films of organic compounds on solid surfaces have been studied for more than 60 years because they allow fabrication of multicomposite molecular assemblies of tailored architecture. However, both the Langmuir-Blodgett technique and chemisorption from solution can be used only with certain classes of molecules. An alternative approach—fabrication of multilayers by consecutive adsorption of polyanions and polycations—is far more general and has been extended to other materials such as proteins or colloids. Because polymers are typically flexible molecules, the resulting superlattice architectures are somewhat fuzzy structures, but the absence of crystallinity in these films is expected to be beneficial for many potential applications.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/277/5330/1232.full.pdf

Fuzzy Nanoassemblies: Toward Layered Polymeric Multicomposites

There is intense interest in graphene in fields such as physics, chemistry, and materials science, among others. Interest in graphene's exceptional physical properties, chemical tunability, and potential for applications has generated thousands of publications and an accelerating pace of research, making review of such research timely. Here is an overview of the synthesis, properties, and applications of graphene and related materials (primarily, graphite oxide and its colloidal suspensions and materials made from them), from a materials science perspective.

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Graphene and Graphene Oxide: Synthesis, Properties, and Applications

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) offer the possibilities to design solar cells with a large flexibility in shape, color, and transparency. DSC research groups have been established around the worl ...

/pdf/dye-sensitized-solar-cells-50b0w2bhsr.pdf

Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Amine functional solid sorbents for carbon dioxide capture and sequestration may be prepared from metal oxide foam solid sorbent supports by treating an appropriate metal oxide foam solid sorbent support with an amine material. Desirable are metal oxide foam solid sorbent supports with a foam structure and morphology at least substantially absent hollow sphere, layered sphere, wormlike and amorphous structure and morphology components. The amine materials may be sorbed into the metal oxide foam solid sorbent support, or alternatively chemically bonded, such as but not limited to covalently bonded, to the metal oxide foam solid sorbent support.

Metal oxide foam, amine functional solid sorbent, methods and applications

Nanorods of cerium oxide as an improved electrocatalyst for enhanced oxygen reduction in single-chambered microbial biofuel cells

New generations of polymer-ceramic nanocomposites are being developed by intercalation of layered solids Synthetic approaches include intercalative polymerization, direct polymer intercalation and molecular dispersion of the host layers in the polymer matrix The unique physical and mechanical properties of the hybrids are attributed to the molecular dispersion and the synergism between the individual components

Intercalated Two-Dimensional Ceramic Nanocomposites

Random Lasers Based on Organic-Inorganic Hybrids

We present and critically discuss a versatile range of smart and functional nanostructured materials that all share certain common characteristics: they are synthesized by green methods, they are non-toxic and are candidates for environmentally benign or environmentally conscious applications. In particular, we describe the synthesis, properties and applications of the following systems: photoluminescent carbogenic nanoparticles, eco-friendly clay nanocomposites, nanostructured coatings for advanced fouling release, nanocoated separators for lithium-ion batteries, nanoscale macroporous scaffolds for fuel cells, antibacterial silver based polymer nanocomposites, magnetic particles for oil removal and conductive polymer nanostructured sensors for the detection of toxic gases.

Emmanuel P. Giannelis

Papers

Metal oxide foam, amine functional solid sorbent, methods and applications

Nanorods of cerium oxide as an improved electrocatalyst for enhanced oxygen reduction in single-chambered microbial biofuel cells

Intercalated Two-Dimensional Ceramic Nanocomposites

Random Lasers Based on Organic-Inorganic Hybrids

Nanostructured materials for environmentally conscious applications