Themed collection Fundamentals of Nanocrystal Formation

Welcome to this CrystEngComm themed issue entitled “Fundamentals of Nanocrystal Formation”.

In the past few decades, much effort was put into the development of synthetic strategies to produce nanoparticles of different sizes and morphologies and a large number of scientific contributions are dedicated to the characterization and application of metal nanoparticles.

Post growth of nanoparticles enables new nanostructure formation and blurs the boundary between crystals and molecules.

This highlight deals with the recent advances on the synthesis in aqueous solution of one-dimensional vanadium(V) oxide nanocrystals.

Distinct synergistic effects of poly(aspartic acid) and magnesium ions found during CaCO₃ precipitation are important for biomineralisation and antiscaling strategies.

Advanced simulation methods show how glutamate oligomers prestructure Ca ions and induce structural motifs in correspondence with calciumoxalate pseudopolymorphs.

Tuning the pseudomorphic transformation of calcium carbonate allows for the generation of crystal lattice tilting similar to that found in calcareous biominerals.

Regioselective growth of a heterophase on facet-controlled nanocrystals is an indispensable step towards generation of geometrically well-defined heteronanoarchitectures.

A facile synthetic strategy has been developed for size-controlled PtCu@Ru nanorattles via co-decomposition of Ru and Cu precursors in the presence of Pt nanoparticles.

The one step synthesis of hierarchical dendritic Pt nanostructures with a concave Pt octahedron building unit is demonstrated.

A facile one pot synthetic route has been developed to obtain octahedral CuIr nanocrystals with Ir-rich {111} facets, which show high catalytic activity toward oxygen evolution reaction.

Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) nanocrystals with high crystallinity and tailored morphology ranging between spherical and rod-like were obtained by non-aqueous reaction at moderate temperatures.

Galvanic replacement is a versatile synthetic strategy for the synthesis of alloy and hollow nanostructures.

The structural transformation of WO₃ at high temperatures.

Closing the loop: initially, the reactivity of benzyl alcohol determines the nucleation of Cu nanoparticles, but as soon as they start to form they begin to catalyze the condensation of benzyl alcohol to dibenzylether.

High efficiency kesterite based solar cells have vigorously raised the research interests in this material.

Formation of Rh frame nanorods was studied using Au nanorods having high-index facets as sacrificial templates.

Early particle formation in iron pentacarbonyl doped low-pressure flames is observed by complementary experiments and confirmed by detailed numerical simulations.

Nanocrystalline calcite is formed under the influence of block copolymers containing thermoresponsive PNIPAM and a mineralization controlling block of poly(acrylic acid) and the nanocrystal formation kinetics studied by in situ X-ray diffraction.

Crystallization of inorganic carbonates on photolithographic polymer matrices led to development of inorganic/organic hybrid materials with photo-controlled and self-organized structures.

The in situ PDF method provides detailed information about the formation and growth mechanisms of TiO₂ anatase nanoparticles under hydrothermal conditions.

The formation mechanism of Ag@FeCo@Ag core–shell–shell nanoparticles which are synthesized by the combination of a multi-step hot injection method and a polyol method was investigated by comparing several different derivative NPs such as Ag@FeCo, Ag@Co, Ag@Fe and FeCo NPs.

This article describes a complete study of the evolution of composition (from binary to quaternary) and shape (0D–1D) during the synthesis of CZTS nanocrystals.

Zinc oxide surface growth in ethanolic solution leads to nanoscale islands for (000) faces and ridged growth fronts for (100) growth. This provides a detailed basis for analysing the selective binding of additives for growth control.

The phase behavior of an amphiphilic block copolymer based on a poly(aspartic acid) hydrophilic block and a poly(n-butyl acrylate) hydrophobic block was investigated at the air–water and air–buffer interface.

SrTiO₃ hierarchical structures can be synthesized in ethanol/water mixed solvent at room temperature without using any structure-directing templates.

We elucidate the evolution of forming nuclei leading towards a racemic molecular crystal by means of computer simulation.