Nanostructured materials: basic concepts and microstructure

Nanostructured Materials (NsM) are materials with a microstructure the characteristic 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 synthesized 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 compositions are far away from thermodynamic equilibrium. The properties of NsM deviate 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 crystallites as well as from the numerous interfaces between adjacent crystallites. An attempt is made to summarize the basic physical concepts and the microstructural features of equilibrium and non-equilibrium NsM.