Mesocrystals-Ordered Nanoparticle Superstructures

Mesocrystals are 3D ordered nanoparticle superstructures, often with internal porosity, which receive much recent research interest. While more and more mesocrystal systems are found in biomineralization or synthesized, their potential as material still needs to be explored. It needs to be revealed,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Advanced materials (Weinheim) 2010-03, Vol.22 (12), p.1301-1330
Main Authors: Song, Rui-Qi, Cölfen, Helmut
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
biominerals
Crystallization - methods
Crystallization - trends
functional materials
mesocrystals
Nanocomposites
Nanomaterials
Nanoparticles
Nanoparticles - chemistry
Nanoparticles - ultrastructure
Nanostructure
Nanotechnology - methods
Nanotechnology - trends
oriented aggregation
Physical properties
Superstructures
Synthesis
Three dimensional
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Summary:Mesocrystals are 3D ordered nanoparticle superstructures, often with internal porosity, which receive much recent research interest. While more and more mesocrystal systems are found in biomineralization or synthesized, their potential as material still needs to be explored. It needs to be revealed, which new chemical and physical properties arise from the mesocrystal structure, or how they change by the ordered aggregation of nanoparticles to fully exploit the promising potential of mesocrystals. Also, the mechanisms for mesocrystal synthesis need to be explored to adapt it to a wide class of materials. The last three years have seen remarkable progress, which is summarized here. Also potential future directions of this reaserch field are discussed. This shows the importance of mesocrystals not only for the field of materials research and allows the appliction of mesocrystals in advanced materials synthesis or property improvement of existing materials. It also outlines attractive research directions in this field. This Progress Report highlights recent advances in the field of mesocrystals. Focus is on understanding of the formation mechanisms as well as the generation or change of chemical and physical properties, such as optical, magnetic, mechanical, and catalytic performance due to the mesoscopically ordered nanoparticle aggregation. Future research directions in the field are also proposed.
ISSN:0935-9648
1521-4095
1521-4095
DOI:10.1002/adma.200901365