Nanomaterials

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Nanomaterials has become an area of intense research activities during the last decade. With particle size in such systems generally ranging from 1 to 100 nm, their physical properties neither correspond to those of free atoms or molecules making up the particle nor to those of the bulk solids having identical chemical composition. Materials with such a structure in the nanometre scale are characterized by large surface to volume ratio implying that a major fraction of atoms reside at the grain boundary. Because of the ultrafine dimensions, the physical properties are dominated by quantum mechanical effects. As a consequence, novel properties are expected and have been found in several systems of such nanostructural characteristics. With a well developed non fabrication ability, the researcher can now conceive of new structures in this dimensional domain and thereby general novel quantum mechanical properties. This also opens up a fascinating new realm of fundamental physics. Nanomaterials, therefore, provide challenging opportunities for physicists, chemists, materials scientists and engineers to contribute to the development of nano electron devices and a myriad of sensor systems. It is expected that nanomaterials will play a dominant role in device technology in the next few decades.

The present volume is a modest effort to focus for the general researcher some of the basic aspects of preparation and properties of nanostructured materials. The authors, are experts in this field. They review different aspects of this subject in the articles of this volume. The first three papers (S K pabi et al.; A Gupta; P Pramanik et al.) deal with the synthesis of nanocrystalline materials, viz., by mechanical attrition of metals and alloys, by controlled crystallization of amorphous alloys and by chemical methods for ultrafine oxides. The fourth paper (by P Ayyub) examines the effect of particle size (in the nanometre scale) on the ferroelectric properties of conventional titanates. The fifth one (by S Ramasamy et al.) delineates the electrical properties of nanostructured materials synthesized by various methods. The sixth article (by S N Sahu et al.) discusses the theoretical aspects of nanocrystalline semiconductors and examines their possible applications. The seventh paper (by A K Pal et al.) reviews the absorption and photoluminescence phenomena in nanocrystalline ZnS and ZnSe materials.

I take this opportunity to thank all the authors for their efforts in writing the review papers. I also thank Professor S K Malik and Professor N Sathyamurthy for their help and support in bringing out this Special Volume on Nanomaterials.

**Contents and Sample Pages**