ABSTRACT
Nanostructures in the range of a few nanometers are of fundamental importance for exploiting quantum size e ects at room temperature [3,4] or for unprecedented sensitivity in molecular detection [5,6]. ey are necessary in the elds of energy conversion and environmental issues for the development of high-e ciency catalyst materials, which are required to produce alternative (in view of fossil) fuels like hydrogen or to convert fuel into electricity making use of fuel cells. e research in this eld has shown that the speci c catalytic e ciency can be
improved signi cantly when decreasing the particle size down to a few nanometers in diameter. Since many of the currently discussed applications of nanostructures utilize a solid/liquid working environment, the research close to real conditions at solid/liquid interfaces is of great importance.
