ABSTRACT
Nanotechnology is an interdisciplinary eld merging fundamental and applied research at the boundaries between physical and chemical sciences and engineering and life sciences. Nanoparticles (NPs) are of great scientic interest as they are effectively a bridge between bulk materials and atomic or molecular structures. Nanoparticles are generally made out of metallic, semiconductor, or insulating materials. Nanoparticles made of semiconducting materials may also be labeled as quantum dots if they are small enough (typically less than Bohr exciton diameter) that quantization of electronic energy levels occurs. Due to quantum connement, size-dependent properties are observed in semiconductor nanoparticles (Eychmuller 2000, Murray et al. 2000, Trindade et al. 2001, Efros et al. 2003, Nalwa 2004, Priyam et al. 2005, Rao and Cheetham 2006, Hofmann 2007, Li et al. 2008b), surface plasmon resonance in some metal particles (Faraday 1857, Feldheim and Foss 2002, Ito 2004, Klimov 2004, Rao et al. 2012), and superparamagnetism in magnetic materials (Danial and Astruc 2004, Bogle et al. 2008). Additionally, semiconductor nanocrystals have unique photocatalytic behavior (Astruc 2008, Zhu et al. 2008) due to the coupled effect of surface phenomena and quantum connement effect.
