This title reports the state-of-the-art advancements in modeling and characterization of fundamental and the recently designed carbon based nanocomposites (graphenes, fullerenes, polymers, crystals and allotropic forms). Written by leading experts in the field, the book explores the quantification, indexing, and interpretation of physical and chemical exotic properties related with space-time structure-evolution, phase transitions, chemical reactivity, and topology. Exotic Properties of Carbon Nanomatter is aimed at researchers in academia and industry.

E-Health Systems Quality and Reliability: Models and Standards addresses the reason, principles and functionality of health and health care systems and presents a novel framework for revealing, understanding and implementing appropriate management interventions leading to qualitative improvement. It also provides evidence on the quality and reliability of telemedicine and reviews standards and guidelines for practicing medicine at a distance.

"FIB Nanostructures "reviews a range of methods, including milling, etching, deposition, and implantation, applied to manipulate structures at the nanoscale. Focused Ion Beam (FIB) is an important tool for manipulating the structure of materials at the nanoscale, and substantially extends the range of possible applications of nanofabrication. FIB techniques are widely used in the semiconductor industry and in materials research for deposition and ablation, including the fabrication of nanostructures such as nanowires, nanotubes, nanoneedles, graphene sheets, quantum dots, etc. The main objective of this book is to create a platform for knowledge sharing and dissemination of the latest advances in novel areas of FIB for nanostructures and related materials and devices, and to provide a comprehensive introduction to the field and directions for further research. Chapters written by leading scientists throughout the world create a fundamental bridge between focused ion beam and nanotechnology that is intended tostimulate readers' interest in developing new types of nanostructures for application to semiconductor technology. These applications are increasingly important for the future development of materials science, energy technology, and electronic devices. The book can be recommended for physics, electrical engineering, and materials science departments as a reference on materials science and device design."

Nanostructured materials have been largely studied in the last few years. They have great potential of applications in different fields such as materials science, physics, chemistry, biology, mechanic and medicine. Synthesis and characterization of nanostructured materials is a subject of great interest involving science, market, politicians, government and society. Based on results obtained by the authors' research group during the past decade, this book comes to present novel techniques to synthesize nanostructured materials and characterize their properties such as crystallinity and crystallite size, specific surface area, particle size, morphology and catalytic activity. This book is aimed for students, researchers and engineers searching for methodologies to obtain and characterize nanostructures in details.

This thesis offers a comprehensive introduction to surface acoustic waves in the quantum regime. It addresses two of the most significant technological challenges in developing a scalable quantum information processor based on spins in quantum dots: (i) decoherence of the electronic spin qubit due to the surrounding nuclear spin bath, and (ii) long-range spin-spin coupling between remote qubits. Electron spins confined in quantum dots (QDs) are among the leading contenders for implementing quantum information processing. To this end, the author pursues novel strategies that turn the unavoidable coupling to the solid-state environment (in particular, nuclear spins and phonons) into a valuable asset rather than a liability.

This book explores the impacts of important material parameters on the electrical properties of indium arsenide (InAs) nanowires, which offer a promising channel material for low-power electronic devices due to their small bandgap and high electron mobility. Smaller diameter nanowires are needed in order to scale down electronic devices and improve their performance. However, to date the properties of thin InAs nanowires and their sensitivity to various factors were not known. The book presents the first study of ultrathin InAs nanowires with diameters below 10 nm are studied, for the first time, establishing the channel in field-effect transistors (FETs) and the correlation between nanowire diameter and device performance. Moreover, it develops a novel method for directly correlating the atomic-level structure with the properties of individual nanowires and their device performance. Using this method, the electronic properties of InAs nanowires and the performance of the FETs they are used in are found to change with the crystal phases (wurtzite, zinc-blend or a mix phase), the axis direction and the growth method. These findings deepen our understanding of InAs nanowires and provide a potential way to tailor device performance by controlling the relevant parameters of the nanowires and devices.

DNA nanotechnology: From structure to function presents an overview of various facets of DNA nanotechnology, with a particular focus on their promising applications. This book is composed of three parts. Part I, Elements of DNA Nanotechnology, provides extensive basic information on DNA nanotechnology. Part II, Static and Dynamic DNA Nanotechnology, describes the design and fabrication of static and dynamic DNA nanostructures. Recent advances in DNA origami, DNA walkers and DNA nanodevices are all covered in this part. Part III, Applications of DNA Nanotechnology, introduces a variety of applications of DNA nanotechnology, including biosensing, computation, drug delivery, etc. Together these provide a comprehensive overview of this emerging area and its broad impact on biological and medical sciences. This book is intended for post-graduates, post-doctoral researchers and research scientists who are interested in expanding their knowledge of DNA nanotechnology. It provides readers an impression of the latest developments in this exciting filed.

This book surveys recent advances in theranostics based on magnetic nanoparticles, ultrasound contrast agents, silica nanoparticles and polymeric micelles. It presents magnetic nanoparticles, which offer a robust tool for contrast enhanced MRI imaging, magnetic targeting, controlled drug delivery, molecular imaging guided gene therapy, magnetic hyperthermia, and controlling cell fate. Multifunctional ultrasound contrast agents have great potential in ultrasound molecular imaging, multimodal imaging, drug/gene delivery, and integrated diagnostics and therapeutics. Due to their diversity and multifunctionality, polymeric micelles and silica-based nanocomposites are highly capable of enhancing the efficacy of multimodal imaging and synergistic cancer therapy. This comprehensive book summarizes the main advances in multifunctional nanoprobes for targeted imaging and therapy of gastric cancer, and explores the clinical translational prospects and challenges. Although more research is needed to overcome the substantial obstacles that impede the development and availability of nanotheranostic products, such nontrivial nanoagents are expected to revolutionize medical treatments and help to realize the potential of personalized medicine to diagnose, treat, and follow-up patients with cancer. Zhifei Dai is a Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, China.

This book presents cutting-edge research on a wide range of nanotechnology techniques and applications. It features contributions from scientists who participated in the International Summer School "Nanotechnology: From Fundamental Research to Innovations" in Bukovel, Ukraine on August 26 - September 2, 2012 funded by the European Commission FP7 project Nanotwinning implemented by the Institute of Physics of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and partner institutions: University of Tartu (Estonia), European Profiles A.E. (Greece), University of Turin (Italy) and Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (France). Worldwide experts present the latest results on such key topics as microscopy of nanostructures; nanocomposites; nanostructured interfaces and surfaces; nanooptics; nanoplasmonics; and enhanced vibrational spectroscopy. Imaging technique coverage ranges from atomic force microscopy and spectroscopy, multiphoton imagery, and laser diagnostics of nanomaterials and nanostructures, to resonance Raman and SERS for surface characterization, and scanning tunneling microscopy of organic molecules. The breadth of topics highlights the exciting variety of research currently being undertaken in this field and suggests new opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and future research.

This volume is the latest of the "Kirchberg-Proceedings". The previous 11 International Winterschools on Electronic Properties of Novel Materials, all held in Kirchberg, Austria, were devoted to conducting polymers, high temperature superconductors, fullerenes, and carbon nanotubes. Fullerenes and nanotubes are still in the center of interest, but the topic of the school and the proceedings is molecular nanostructures in general. The organizers have attempted to treat carbon nanostructures as a special case of molecular nanostructures, which also include silicon clusters, gold clusters, vanadium oxide tubes, and many others. The Winterschool provides a platform for reviewing and discussing new developments in the field of molecular nanostructures and their applications. Materials discussed include fullerenes, fullerene-derived structures, carbonaceous nanotubes, non-carbonaceous nanotubes, layer by layer systems, molecular clusters, new phases of carbon, endohedral compounds and related materials. The book aims to give an overview of the current status of fullerenes, carbon-nanotubes and related molecular nanostructures. The majority of the contributions present the latest results of experiments and calculations conducted in the field. However, about a dozen contain some degree of instructional material which even newcomers will benefit from.

This thesis exploits the ability of the linear-scaling quantum mechanical code ONETEP to analyze systems containing many thousands of atoms. By implementing an electron transport capability to the code, it also investigates a range of phenomena associated with electrical conduction by nanotubes and, in particular, the process of transport electrons between tubes. Extensive work has been done on the conductivity of single carbon nanotubes. However, any realistic wire made of nanotubes will consist of a large number of tubes of finite length. The conductance of the resulting wire is expected to be limited by the process of transferring electrons from one tube to another.These quantum mechanical calculations on very large systems have revealed a number of incorrect claims made previously in the literature. Conduction processes that have never before been studied at this level of theory are also investigated.

Since the original publication of Noncontact Atomic Force Microscopy in 2002, the noncontact atomic force microscope (NC-AFM) has achieved remarkable progress. This second treatment deals with the following outstanding recent results obtained with atomic resolution since then: force spectroscopy and mapping with atomic resolution; tuning fork; atomic manipulation; magnetic exchange force microscopy; atomic and molecular imaging in liquids; and other new technologies. These results and technologies are now helping evolve NC-AFM toward practical tools for characterization and manipulation of individual atoms/molecules and nanostructures with atomic/subatomic resolution. Therefore, the book exemplifies how NC-AFM has become a crucial tool for the expanding fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Written for: Scientists, practitioners, graduate students

This book provides an overview of direct methods such as limit and shakedown analysis, which are intended to do away with the need for cumbersome step-by-step calculations and determine the loading limits of mechanical structures under monotone, cyclic or variable loading with unknown loading history. The respective contributions demonstrate how tremendous advances in numerical methods, especially in optimization, have contributed to the success of direct methods and their practical applicability to engineering problems in structural mechanics, pavement and general soil mechanics, as well as the design of composite materials. The content reflects the outcomes of the workshop "Direct Methods: Methodological Progress and Engineering Applications," which was offered as a mini-symposium of PCM-CMM 2019, held in Cracow, Poland in September 2019.

This book highlights and reviews the renewable feed stock principle of green nanotechnology by focusing the use of plant-derived cardanol as a renewable starting material for the synthesis of advanced materials. The book presents the chemistry of cardanol and methods of isolation, covers macro and nano structures based on cardanol as well as potential applications of such materials. Future perspectives on cardanol based green nanotechnology are highlighted in the final chapter.

This book presents a comprehensive survey about conducting polymers and their hybrids with different materials. It highlights the topics pertinent to research and development in academia and in the industry. The book thus discusses the preparation and characterization of these materials, as well as materials properties and their processing. The current challenges in the field are addressed, and an outline on new and even futuristic approaches is given. "Conducting Polymer Hybrids" is concerned with a fascinating class of materials with the promise for wide-ranging applications, including energy generation and storage, supercapacitors, electronics, display technologies, sensing, environmental and biomedical applications. The book covers a large variety of systems: one-, two-, and three-dimenstional composites and hybrids, mixed at micro- and nanolevel.

The emergence of nanotechnology has had a profound effect on almost every aspect of the 21st century's daily life. It has had a revolutionary impact from stain-resistant clothing and cosmetics to environmental issues , including energy and medicine and even aerospace engineering. In Oxidative Stress and Nanotechnology: Methods and Protocols, expert researchers in the field detail various aspects of nanotechnology from the oxidative stress point of view. Focusing on synthesis of different antioxidant nanoparticles and antioxidant-loaded nanoparticles, as well as their in vitro/ in vivo mechanisms of action along with their clinical relevance. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology (TM) series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and key tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and practical, Oxidative Stress and Nanotechnology: Methods and Protocols seeks to aid scientists in the further study of techniques for nanotechnology in pathophysiology and protection from the oxidative stress point of view.

In this thesis, Claudia Backes guides the reader through her multidisciplinary research into the non-covalent functionalization of carbon nanotubes in water. Although one of the most remarkable materials of the 21st century, carbon nanotubes often have limited application because of their intrinsically low solubility and polydispersity. The author shows that rational surfactant design is a powerful tool for chemists because it can unmask the key to solubilization and allow us to tailor nanotube surface and optical properties in a fully reversible fashion. Aspects of organic, physical and analytical chemistry, as well as colloidal sciences are covered in this outstanding work which brings us one step closer to exploiting this super-material to its full potential.

'Recent Advances in Elastomeric Nanocomposites' reviews the recent progresses in the synthesis, processing as well as applications of elastomeric nanocomposites. Elastomers are a very important class of polymer materials and the generation of their nanocomposites by the incorporation of nano-filler has led to significant enhancement of their properties and, hence, expansion of their application potential. Most of the studies related with these materials are present in the form of research papers. Here, the authors present a comprehensive text covering the whole of the subject. The book is tailored more from the applications point of view, but also provide enough introductory material for research scholars new to this field.

"Polymeric and Nanostructured Macromolecules" presents the recent advances made in the synthesis, characterization, and applications of polymeric macromolecules.

This book provides an excellent overview of the recent breakthroughs in the science of macromolecules, with an emphasis on nanostructured macromolecules and the perspectives that these versatile materials offer to different fields such as optoelectronics and biotechnology.

Advanced undergraduate, graduate students and researchers alike will find the topics concerning physical and chemical properties of advanced macromolecular materials of great interest.

This Springer Laboratory volume is a practical guide for scientists and students dealing with the measurement of mechanical properties of polymers at the nanoscale through AFM force-distance curves. In the first part of the book the reader will find a theoretical introduction about atomic force microscopy, focused on force-distance curves, and mechanical properties of polymers. The discussion of several practical issues concerning the acquisition and the interpretation of force-distance curves will help scientists starting to employ this technique. The second part of the book deals with the practical measurement of mechanical properties of polymers by means of AFM force-distance curves. Several "hands-on" examples are illustrated in a very detailed manner, with particular attention to the sample preparation, data analysis, and typical artefacts. This section gives a complete overview about the qualitative characterization and quantitative determination of the mechanical properties of homogeneous polymer samples, polymer brushes, polymer thin films, confined polymer samples, model blends and microstructured polymer blends through AFM force-distance curves. The book also introduces to new approaches and measurement techniques, like creep compliance and force modulation measurements, pointing out approximations, limitations and issues requiring further confirmation.

Nanodroplets, the basis of complex and advanced nanostructures such as quantum rings, quantum dots and quantum dot clusters for future electronic and optoelectronic materials and devices, have attracted the interdisciplinary interest of chemists, physicists and engineers. This book combines experimental and theoretical analyses of nanosized droplets which reveal many attractive properties. Coverage includes nanodroplet synthesis, structure, unique behaviors and their nanofabrication, including chapters on focused ion beam, atomic force microscopy, molecular beam epitaxy and the "vapor-liquid- solid" route. Particular emphasis is given to the behavior of metallic nanodroplets, water nanodroplets and nanodroplets in polymer and metamaterial nanocomposites. The contributions of leading scientists and their research groups will provide readers with deeper insight into the chemical and physical mechanisms, properties, and potential applications of various nanodroplets.

This book highlights recent advances and applications in terahertz (THz) technology, addressing advanced topics such as THz biomedical imaging, pattern recognition and tomographic reconstruction for THz biomedical imaging by machine learning and artificial intelligence, THz imaging radars for autonomous vehicle applications, and THz imaging systems for security and surveillance. It also discusses theoretical, experimental, established and validated empirical work on these topics.

The thesis presents an original and smart way to manipulate liquid and polymeric materials using a "pyro-fluidic platform" which exploits the pyro-electric effect activated onto a ferroelectric crystal. It describes a great variety of functionalities of the pyro-electrohydrodynamic platform, such as droplet self-assembling and dispensing, for manipulating multiphase liquids at the micro- and nanoscale. The thesis demonstrates the feasibility of non-contact self-assembling of liquids in plane (1D) using a micro engineered crystal, improving the dispensing capability and the smart transfer of material between two different planes (2D) and controlling and fabricating three-dimensional structures (3D). The thesis present the fabrication of highly integrated and automated 'lab-on-a-chip' systems based on microfluidics. The pyro-platform presented herein offers the great advantage of enabling the actuation of liquids in contact with a polar dielectric crystal through an electrode-less configuration. The simplicity and flexibility of the method for fabricating 3D polymer microstructures shows the great potential of the pyro-platform functionalities, exploitable in many fields, from optics to biosensing. In particular, this thesis reports the fabrication of optically active elements, such as nanodroplets, microlenses and microstructures, which have many potential applications in photonics. The capability for manipulating the samples of interest in a touch-less modality is very attractive for biological and chemical assays. Besides controlling cell growth and fate, smart micro-elements could deliver optical stimuli from and to cells monitoring their growth in real time, opening interesting perspectives for the realization of optically active scaffolds made of nanoengineered functional elements, thus paving the way to fascinating Optogenesis Studies.

The science and technology relating to nanostructures continues to receive significant attention for its applications to various fields including microelectronics, nanophotonics, and biotechnology. This book describes the basic quantum mechanical principles underlining this fast developing field. From the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics to nanomaterial properties, from device physics to research and development of new systems, this title is aimed at undergraduates, graduates, postgraduates, and researchers.

The commercial availability and decreasing cost of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes in recent years has opened up the field to everybody who wishes to apply these unique properties in their own technologies. This is the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of these applications, and covers the synthesis, characterization and history of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes, their use as metallasilsesquioxane catalysts, their effect upon polymer properties and plastics performance, and their use in superhydrophobic nanocomposites, and electronics, energy, space and biomedical applications. "Applications of Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxanes" is a valuable reference for those working across a range of disciplines, including chemists, materials scientists, polymer physicists, plastics engineers, surface scientists, and anybody with a commercial or academic interest in plastics, composite materials, space materials, dental materials, tissue engineering, drug delivery, lithography, fuel cells, batteries, lubricants, or liquid crystal, LED, sensor, photovoltaic or biomedical devices.