ABSTRACT

Metallonutraceuticals are nothing but biological metallic nanocrystals (1). The physical and chemical properties of metals are mostly determined by the motion of electrons. When the motion of electrons is confined to a nanometerlength scale (1-100 nm), which happens in nanomaterials, unusual effects are observed. The physicochemical properties of the metal nanoparticles are completely different than those of their respective bulk materials due to their very small size and high surface-to-volume ratio. The properties of bulk materials are solely composition dependent. However, as the size of the particles decreases to a few nanometers, the electronic structure is altered from the continuous band to discrete electronic levels. Thus, the properties of the nanomaterial become size dependent.