ABSTRACT
The high interface-to-volume ratio is an intrinsic property of nanomaterials (Feynman 1959). In most cases, the creation of an interface has an energy cost that makes nanostructures less stable than their bulk equivalents, especially in critical conditions such as intense light irradiation, high temperature, or oxidative environments (Drexler 1992; Amendola and Meneghetti 2009b). The design of nanoscale self-repairing systems can solve the problem of structural and functional damages and, therefore, it is an outstanding requirement in nanoscience and nanotechnology. However, a very limited number of nanomaterials with self-healing ability are known. To date, most of the self-healing strategies developed by researchers are devoted to the reparation of structural materials (Amendola and Meneghetti 2009b). Moreover, the strategies developed for the self-healing of micro-or macro-sized materials cannot be easily extended to nanomaterials because of the extreme size con˜nement (Hager et al. 2010). Different approaches are required, which may be
4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 71 4.2 Optical Limiting with AuNPs ........................................................................ 72 4.3 Self-Healing of AuNPs during Laser Irradiation ........................................... 76 4.4 Self-Healing of Gold Nanoparticles as a Simple Case
of “Systems Nanotechnology” ........................................................................ 83 4.5 Conclusions and Perspectives .........................................................................86 Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................87 References ................................................................................................................87
directly or indirectly inspired to natural systems, where several components interact together for the self-repair of functional units (Fratzl 2007).
