Abstract
The development of new functional nanomaterials builds on an understanding of the intricate relation between material structure and properties. Only by knowing the atomic arrangement can the mechanisms responsible for material properties be elucidated and new materials and technologies developed. Nanomaterials challenge the crystallographic techniques often used for structure characterization, and the structure of many nanomaterials are therefore often assumed to be 'cut-outs' of the corresponding bulk material. Here, I will discuss how Pair Distribution Function (PDF) analysis of total scattering data can aid nanochemists in obtaining a structural understanding of nanoscale materials, focusing on examples from metal oxide chemistry.
Highlights
Understanding the relation between material synthesis, structure and properties is the very core of materials chemistry, and discoveries of new materials and applications rely on being able to determine and characterize atomic structure
Crystallography has played an enormous role in this work
The first question a chemist asks after a synthesis is “what is it?”, and crystallography and diffraction techniques are here indispensable
Summary
Understanding the relation between material synthesis, structure and properties is the very core of materials chemistry, and discoveries of new materials and applications rely on being able to determine and characterize atomic structure.
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