Contents


*M.N.M. Ansari and M.N.F. Norrrahim*

Preface

Nanocrystalline materials have been attracting much attention in the field of future science and technology. Indeed, the scientific interest in these materials in the powdered and bulk form is associated mainly with expectations of various size effects on their properties. Thus, the term "*nanocrystalline materials*" relates to the sizes of structural elements. The range of application of these materials is huge, such as more efficient catalysts, films, magnetic materials, protective coatings, and biological and biomaterials. Many compounds and elements, if made in the nanoscale, behave quite differently from how they would have in their conventional state, and these new physical and chemical properties give rise to a whole new field

The overall purpose of this book, "*Nanocrystalline Materials*", is to present selected advanced topics on nanocrystals, allowing the book to be a good resource for scholars and students of material science, nanotechnology and physical chemistry. The chapters for this book have been contributed by the most respected researchers in this area and give an overview of selected properties and applications of nanocrystalline materials. IntechOpen and myself as the editor hope that this book will aid current research and prove to be very useful to the scientific community. If so, this will be the nicest reward for us. Ultimately, I wish to thank all the authors for their contributions and I should like to acknowledge the sustained helpfulness and dedication of the publisher's staff, in particular of *Mr. Gordan Tot* by his insistence

> **Behrooz Movahedi** Associate Professor,

University of Isfahan,

Isfahan, Iran

Department of Nanotechnology Engineering, Faculty of Advanced Sciences and Technologies,

of scientific study.

for this interesting project.
