ABSTRACT
From a purely intellectual perspective, nanotechnologies additionally hold the promise of a wide variety of fascinating new systems and exotic phenomena to explore and to understand. In this respect, nothing can be more intriguing than the electronic properties of nanomaterials, when low dimensionality, quantum mechanics, and drastic size e ects combine
together to produce unforeseen and counterintuitive e ects. Examples of qualitatively new behaviors discovered in nanomaterials include the prominent role of magic sizes in the stability and electronic properties of nanoclusters (de Heer 1993), novel manifestations of superconductivity in nanostructured materials (Schuller et al. 2008), and the super-paramagnetic behavior observed in ferromagnetic nanoparticles (Billas et al. 1993).
