ABSTRACT
FIG. 11.0 Nicholas Turro of Columbia University, renowned supramolecular chemist.
THREADS Chapter 11 is about chemistry and synthesis at the nanoscale. How different would you expect the subject matter in this chapter to be from any other found in traditional chemistry textbooks? Chemistry, after all, is just chemistry. Traditional chemistry has always involved some semblance of the nanoscale, the best example of which is given by colloid chemistry. Chemistry at the nanoscale involves every kind of traditional chemistry. As we have stated before, human beings have dabbled in the chemistry of nanoscale materials for the past millennia or so, but we have had limited success in controlling the size, shape and orientation of nanomaterialsatleast until now. In the latter part of the twentieth century to the present, major breakthroughs have been accomplished in that regard. The key ingredient is to keep nanomaterials from morphing into larger materials or decomposing into smaller ones.
