Synthesis and Processing of Nanomaterials

Abstract

Nanomaterials have emerged as a distinct class of modern materials. These materials are of significant importance due to their unique optical, electrical, thermal, and magnetic properties. Due to their tunable physical and chemical characteristics, including melting point, electrical conductivity, wettability, heat conductivity, light absorption, catalytic activity, and scattering, these materials have also gained recognition in high-tech engineering applications. These characteristics reflect better performance and working efficiency of nanomaterials relative to their bulk counterparts. Although there are many naturally occurring nanomaterials, most nanomaterials are engineered in laboratories. Such materials are purposefully synthesized in accordance with the industrial requirements. This chapter deals with the fundamentals of nanomaterials, their history, properties, and industrial applications. Different methods of synthesis of nanomaterials, their merits, demerits, and scale-up potential are also discussed in this chapter.