Preface

The present book *Novel Nanomaterials- Synthesis and Applications* describes many points in materials of nanotechnology. Nanomaterials is one of the hottest fields in nanotechnology that studies fabrication, characterization, and analysis of materials with morphological fea‐ tures on the nanoscale in at least one dimension. Recent progress in synthesis and funda‐ mental understanding of properties of nanomaterial has led to significant advancement of nanomaterial-based gas/chemical/biological sensors. The most important aspect of nanoma‐ terial is their special properties associated with nanoscale geometries. The most fundamen‐ tal characteristic of nanomaterials is their high surface area to volume ratio, which results in a number of unusual physical and chemical properties such as high molecular adsorption, large surface tension force, enhanced chemical and biological activities, large catalytic ef‐ fects, and extreme mechanical strength. Another unique property of this material, which is recently the most studied, is the quantum size effect that leads to their discrete electronic band structure like those of molecules. This quantum property of nanomaterial can lead to an extraordinary high sensitivity and selectivity of biosensors and can be a benefit to the field of diagnostics. This book covers the recent progress of selected nanomaterials over a broad range of gas/chemical/biological sensing applications, and examples of nanomaterials in sensing and diagnostic application are also presented. The hottest area of nanomaterial called "carbon nanomaterial" including carbon nanotube and graphene is currently re‐ viewed. With the extensive review of newly discovered nanomaterials used for sensors and diagnostics, this book will be interesting not only for scientists working in the field of nano‐ material-based sensor technology but also for students studying analytical chemistry, bio‐ chemistry, electrochemistry, material science, and micro- and nanotechnology. All of the above clearly indicate that the "world" of nanomaterials has various sections. Therefore, the scope of this book is wide. Specialists, researchers, and professors from more than 20 coun‐ tries have published in this book their research in the nanomaterial field. We are grateful to all of the authors who have contributed their tremendous expertise to the present book. We wish to acknowledge the outstanding support of Ms. Maja Bozicevic, Publishing Process Manager, InTechOpen , who collaborated tirelessly in crafting this book.

The future of nanomaterials is indeed bright!

**Dr. George Z. Kyzas (MSc, PhD) and Prof. Athanasios C. Mitropoulos (MSc, PhD)** Hephaestus Advanced Laboratory Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology Kavala, Greece

#### **Dedicated to**

*The new (autumn 2017) "MPhil in Nanotechnology" (Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology, Kavala, Greece)*

**Section 1**

**Synthesis**

**Section 1**
