Size-Dependent and Surface/Interface Effects in Materials
A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Physics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 December 2026 | Viewed by 26
Special Issue Editor
Interests: low-dimensional materials; metal corrosion and protection; new energy materials; thermodynamics of nanomaterials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
When the dimension of materials enters the nanoscale range, their chemical and physical properties exhibit characteristics different from those of bulk materials. This is because, as the size decreases, the ratio of the number of surface/interface atoms to the total number of atoms in the material continuously increases, making the influence from the surface/interface important. Moreover, this change intensifies as the scales of materials and devices decrease. Therefore, nanocrystals (NCs) and nanostructured materials (NSs) have attracted considerable attention due to their distinct physical and chemical properties compared to bulk materials, where NCs refer to individual nanoscale particles, wires, and films with free surfaces, while NSs refer to nanocrystalline materials composed of nanoscale grains with solid–solid interfaces between them.
Studies show that, when the size of NCs or NSs is comparable to or smaller than the characteristic lengths of phonons, electrons, photons, etc., the periodic boundary is disrupted, leading to abrupt property changes. For example, metal nanoparticles are black (light reflectance <1%), which can be used for infrared stealth, and photothermal conversion. Moreover, their melting point is significantly reduced (such as 2 nm Au powder with a melting point of only 327 °C, much lower than that of bulk gold at 1064 °C). Strikingly, nanoceramics exhibit superplasticity, and traditional brittle materials exhibit high toughness at the nanoscale. Therefore, research on the properties of NCs and NSs is of great significance and importance for their application. This Special Issue focuses on the impact of size effects on material properties, including but not limited to thermal properties, electrical and magnetic properties, optical properties, chemical and catalytic properties, and biocompatibility and antibacterial properties. It is expected that researchers can further report as many distinct properties of materials within the nanoscale range as possible and reveal the mechanisms of their distinct surface or interfacial effects.
Prof. Dr. Yongfu Zhu
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- size effect
- nanocrystals
- nanostructured materials
- surface
- interface
- chemical and physical properties
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