Controlled Synthesis of Nanoparticles in Microheterogeneous Systems

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.

The first step in developing nanoscience and nanotechnology is the production of nanoparticles. Controlled Synthesis of Nanoparticles in Microheterogeneous Systems contains descriptions of one of the most powerful bottom-up methods of synthesizing size controlled and stable nanoparticles. This method is based on the use of surfactant-containing microheterogeneous systems: liquid crystals, monolayers and multilayers, solutions of direct and reversed micelles, direct and reversed vesicles, and water-in-oil and oil-in-water microemulsions. The author is prominent in the field of physico-chemical characterization of microheterogeneous systems and their use as ideal solvent and reaction media for the production and long-term storage of nanomaterials. This is the first book that attempts to unify the knowledge necessary for judicious manipulation of surfactant-based systems and a fine tuning of geometric and physico-chemical properties of nanoparticles of a wide variety of substances. Prof. Turco Liveri has chosen to write an easy-to-read book aiming to be evocative rather than exhaustive.

Because of the intense interest in nanoscience and nanomaterials, this book is an important fundamental work that fits ideally into the series Nanostructure Science and Technology and will be useful for a wide range of students and young researchers involved in the study and manipulation of matter at the atomic level.