Nanocrystals are fundamental to modern science and technology. Mastery over the shape of a nanocrystal enables control of its properties and enhancement of its usefulness for a given application. Our aim is to present a comprehensive review of current research activities that center on the shape-controlled synthesis of metal nanocrystals. We begin with a brief introduction to nucleation and growth within the context of metal nanocrystal synthesis, followed by a discussion of the possible shapes that a metal nanocrystal might take under different conditions. We then focus on a variety of experimental parameters that have been explored to manipulate the nucleation and growth of metal nanocrystals in solution-phase syntheses in an effort to generate specific shapes. We then elaborate on these approaches by selecting examples in which there is already reasonable understanding for the observed shape control or at least the protocols have proven to be reproducible and controllable. Finally, we highlight a number of applications that have been enabled and/or enhanced by the shape-controlled synthesis of metal nanocrystals. We conclude this article with personal perspectives on the directions toward which future research in this field might take.

Shape‐Controlled Synthesis of Metal Nanocrystals: Simple Chemistry Meets Complex Physics?

Strong Closed-Shell Interactions in Inorganic Chemistry.

Advances in copper complexes as anticancer agents.

Polymeric materials with antimicrobial activity

The challenge of cyclic and acyclic schiff bases and related derivatives

The organogermanium chemistry covers huge fields, as shown by a survey covering the crystallographic and structural data of over four hundred and fifty examples. Over 10 percent of those compounds exist as distortion isomers (around 97 %) and ligand isomers (around 3 %). These are discussed in term of coordination around the Ge(II), Ge(IV) and Ge2 +3 atoms, and correlations are drawn between donor atoms, bond lengths and bond angles. Distortion isomers dif- fer by degree of distortion in Ge - L distances and L-Ge-L angles. Interestingly, in the chemistry germanium coordination complexes besides configuration isomers, also distortion isomers dominate.

Isomerism in the Chemistry of Organogermanium Compounds (Part II)

Spektrale und magnetische eigenschaften von kupfer(ii)-alpha,alpha-dichlor-propionat und seinem dioxan-addukt

Organophosphines in Organoplatinum Complexes Structural Aspects of PtPC3and PtP2CX (X = H, F or OL) Derivatives

Copper(II) Carboxylates and Their 3-Pyridylcarbinol Adducts.

Nonrigid properties of monatomic entities manifest themselves in the whole geometry of their environs. Until now we studied the statistics of these geometries using radial distributions of interatomic vectors. The classification of surroundings of a certain central monatomic entity MZ+ can be based also on their symmetry. It has group — theoretical properties and it can be described by means of non — crystallographic symmetry point groups, of which there are infinitely many. There is, however, a finite amount of crystallographic point groups, viz. 2 one-dimensional, 10 two-dimensional and 32 three-dimensional point groups. The latest of them also describe the site symmetry of monatomic entity in the crystal structure and thus also the symmetry of its surroundings. Surroundings of monatomic entity means here, however, not only the near surroundings usually consisting of coordinating ligands, but the complete surroundings containing all other non coordinating entities of the structure. The symmetry of an ideal crystal structure — of discontinuum, is described by one of 230 space groups. The site symmetry of each monatomic entity of the structure thus has a certain connection with the relative positions of entities which may be classified based on the conception of lattice complexes.

Milan Melnik

Papers

Isomerism in the Chemistry of Organogermanium Compounds (Part II)

Spektrale und magnetische eigenschaften von kupfer(ii)-alpha,alpha-dichlor-propionat und seinem dioxan-addukt

Organophosphines in Organoplatinum Complexes Structural Aspects of PtPC3and PtP2CX (X = H, F or OL) Derivatives

Copper(II) Carboxylates and Their 3-Pyridylcarbinol Adducts.

Statistics of Crystallographic Sites of Central Monatomic Entities