Nanostructured materials: Basic concepts and microstructure

Nanostructured Materials (NsM) are materials with a microstructure the char acteristic length scale of which is on the order of a few (typically 1-10) nanometers. NsM may be in or far away from thermodynamic equilibrium. NsM s ynthesized by supramolecular chemistry are examples of NsM in thermodynamic equilibrium. NsM consisting of nanometer-sized crystallites (e.g. of Au or NaCl) with different crystallographic orientations and/or chemical composi tions are far away from thermodynamic equilibrium. The properties of NsM de viate from those of single crystals (or coarse-grained polycrystals) and/or glasses with the same average chemical composition. This deviation results from the reduced size and/or dimensionality of the nanometer-sized crystal lites as well as from the numerous interfaces between adjacent crystallites . An attempt is made to summarize the basic physical concepts and the micro structural features of equilibrium and non-equilibrium NsM. (C) 2000 Acta M etallurgica Inc. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.