Crystal engineering of nanomaterials: current insights and prospects

Abstract

The rather loosely defined field of crystal engineering offers a wide variety of approaches towards the precise design of nanocrystals for different applications. Thereby, inorganic nanomaterials have been in the focus of research due to their highly interesting characteristics, and the possibility to obtain fascinating structures and morphologies at the smallest size scales. Despite great progress and a steady increase in complexity of the synthesized materials, the targeted preparation of nanocrystals however is still only feasible to a limited extent. Further intensification of the cross-disciplinary exchange of results and insights in nanocrystal engineering on a joint platform like CrystEngComm can accelerate the development of unifying concepts in crystal design and an understanding of structure–property relations. Therefore, this article aims to present the diversity of nanocrystal engineering research, by highlighting some of the most intriguing research results over the past few years.