Nanochemistry: A Chemical Approach to Nanomaterials [Hardcover]

It is what is in your head that counts, not that you know where to look it up in a book, writes Geoffrey Ozin quoting Linus Pauling in the introduction to his recent text Nanochemistry: A Chemical Approach to Nanomaterials. The book, written together with André Arsenault, a recently Ph.D. graduate from Ozin.s research group at the University of Toronto, aims indeed to open the reader's mind clearly thinking of the new generation of chemistry students and provide them with a general introduction to nanochemistry. Ozin defines nanochemistry as .the utilization of synthetic chemistry to make nanoscale building blocks of different size and shape, composition and surface structure that can be useful in their own right or in a self-assembled structure. The book walks its talk: in 593 pages organized in 13 chapters, it describes the chemical methods required to make materials where size and shape are as important as structure and composition. The resulting bottom-up approach is what the authors identify as the new way of thinking about the structure/activity relationships governing the behavior of functional materials. Materials self-assembly is the heart of materials chemistry, the authors contend, and it has introduced an entirely new way of thinking about how to make materials: the spontaneous organization of building blocks into assemblages that are unconstrained by scale due to molecular forces that operate at length scales beyond the molecular, between the building blocks and over different scales. In a self organizing system of materials. Ozin and Arsenault continue a particular architecture forms spontaneously with a structural design which is determined by size and shape of the individual nanocomponents and by the .map of bonding forces between them.. In the glorious European tradition of science teaching, Ozin (a native of London who studied at Oxford) refers extensively to the historic development of materials chemistry. Thus, for instance, Harting's work with biomineral formation (1873) and the classic 1917 Of Growth and Form of D.Arcy Thomson on the same topic find plenty of space in this textbook, showing how the effort to apply physico-geometrical principles to explain morphogenesis. in the study of natural materials has been a constant driving force of scientific thought, of which modern materials chemistry is clearly a continuation. Indeed, it is the discovery that organics direct the growth of inorganics that brings about a revolution in the preparation of artificial, functional materials: Dick Barrer shows how quaternary allylammonium cations dictate assembly of microporous allumino/silicates; Charlie Kresge explains how to extend the length scale well beyond molecular scale; and Edith Flanigen demonstrates how to go beyond aluminosilicates. The subsequent central point of the book resides in the importance of defects as without defects materials would not be useful,. imperfection providing them with interesting properties and ultimately with function. Photonic crystals, supported metal catalysts, and sol-gel materials are celebrated examples. In this discussion, however, the authors fail to include David Avnir.s seminal work on the application of fractal geometry to chemistry and on doped sol-gel materials (including recent work with metals doped with organic molecules); probably the most successful example of materials in which a dramatic number of different functions is dictated by imperfect and tunable geometry. Two excellent features of the book make it a useful, practical tool for teachers of materials chemistry. --Chemical Educator

International interest in nanoscience research has flourished in recent years, as it becomes an integral part in the development of future technologies. The diverse, interdisciplinary nature of nanoscience means effective communication between disciplines is pivotal in the successful utilization of the science. Nanochemistry: A Chemical Approach to Nanomaterials is the first textbook for teaching nanochemistry and adopts an interdisciplinary and comprehensive approach to the subject. It presents a basic chemical strategy for making nanomaterials and describes some of the principles of materials self-assembly over 'all' scales. It demonstrates how nanometre and micrometre scale building blocks (with a wide range of shapes, compositions and surface functionalities) can be coerced through chemistry to organize spontaneously into unprecedented structures, which can serve as tailored functional materials. Suggestions of new ways to tackle research problems and speculations on how to think about assembling the future of nanotechnology are given. Primarily designed for teaching, this book will appeal to graduate and advanced undergraduate students. It is well illustrated with graphical representations of the structure and form of nanomaterials and contains problem sets as well as other pedagogical features such as further reading, case studies and a comprehensive bibliography.