Guest Editor’s Editorial: Size Dependent Effects

Abstract

The special section of Journal of Materials Science contains articles presented at the Second Workshop on SizeDependent Effects in Materials for Environmental Protection and Energy Application (SizeMat-2) held in Nessebar (Bulgaria), September 19–21, 2010. The first edition of the SizeMat Workshop was organized in 2006 with the prime objective to promote debates on the size-dependent phenomena and size control as a promising way for tuning of the materials properties. The success of the meeting was beyond our expectations, confirming the interest of the scientific community towards the topics covered by the Workshop. SizeMat-2 addressed a broader range of advanced materials: traditional materials associated with energy production and environmental protection and new classes of materials, such as materials for optics and molecular electronics and biology-related materials. The focus was on materials’ characteristics at the molecular and cluster level and their relation to the properties of the bulk phase. The Workshop also focused on the spectroscopic and computational methods for description of materials. The copious programme of the 3-day event, attended by participants from 8 countries, included 3 plenary lectures, 6 keynote talks and 13 oral presentations. In addition, three parallel sessions with 23 flash oral presentations and two poster sessions with 89 posters were held. Young researchers received special attention and awards. The Workshop was organized by the National Centre for Advanced Materials (UNION, Module 1), encompassing the Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Faculty of Chemistry of the Sofia University within the framework of the Centres of Excellence Programme of the Bulgarian Science Fund (Contract No DCVP-02/2/2009). Thanks are due to the National Science Fund (Bulgaria) for supporting SizeMat-2. We are indebted to the reviewers for their invaluable assistance in the selection of the published papers. Organizing Committee: Prof. Konstantin Hadjiivanov (Coordinator, Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) Prof. Tony Spassov (Coordinator, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Sofia) Dr. Radostina Stoyanova (Scientific Secretary, Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) Prof. Alia Tadjer (Scientific Secretary, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Sofia)