• Angastiniotis, Nicos

Abstract

To date nanosynthetic development tends to be irreproducible, producing nanoparticles with limited stability and uncontrolled crystallinity, i.e., non-uniform grain size, irregular structure, and variable composition with erratic or undesired stoichiometric or non-stoichiometric constituency.The metastability process provides the means to convert an inhomogeneous nanoparticle into a building block with tailor-made grain size and deliberate stoichiometric or non-stoichiometric compositional constituency. The process not only homogenizes the nanoparticle but also sizes its grain within a range where confinement effects dramatically change the properties of the material. The additional capability of the process to regulate the non-stoichiometric constituency within the frame of the aforementioned building block provides flexibility in regulating even further the material properties, thus multiplying enormously the number of novel substance alternatives available for producing devices and products.The metastability process constitutes a unique thermodynamic and kinetic tool that has the intrinsic capability to regulate the physicochemical characteristics of nanoparticles with precision, providing therefore, extraordinary nanosynthetic ability. It provides the means for enhanced understanding of material properties across length scales thus enabling the development of materials via the a priori prediction of structure-property relationships. Such capability enables the "bottom up" synthesis of nanomaterial building blocks with predictable properties.

Topics

• nanoparticle
• grain
• grain size
• crystallinity