Luis M. Liz-Marz n and Prashant V. Kamat ^[*]

Nanoscale materials can be defined as those whose characteristic length scale lies within the nanometric range, i.e. in the range between one and several hundreds of nanometers. Within this length scale, the properties of matter are sufficiently different from individual atoms or molecules and from bulk materials, that their study has been recently recognized as a new area of science, which is generally termed Nanoscience. Even more popular than Nanoscience has become the term Nanotechnology, which relates to the ability to build functional devices based in the controlled assembly of nanoscale objects, for specific technological applications. The importance of both nanoscience and nanotechnology has been confirmed by a number of national and international initiatives to promote their study. Funding agencies in the USA, Europe, Australia and Japan are spending a significant part of their funds for the development of this relatively new area of study. Likewise, the number of groups working in nanoscience or nanotechnology has dramatically increased during the past two decades, which also means that the amount of information available is becoming larger and larger, so large that it is basically impossible to follow in sufficient detail.

A key to designing organized nanoassemblies for next generation nanodevices is to understand their electronic, structural, and chemical properties, and the manner in which their components contribute to these properties. Such fundamental information is generally lacking. We have attempted to provide this missing link by selecting a broad range of topics...