Chemical Approaches to Nanoscale Magnetic Materials

Materials science in the last few years has become more and more interested at nanoscale phases, where the volume-to-surface area ratio of the bulk material rapidly decreases, conferring to the materials novel properties [1]. From the chemical point of view new synthetic techniques are being developed, aiming at obtaining new materials with varied structural, optical, and transport properties. This new branch of chemistry has also found a new name: nanochemistry. As in normal chemistry the object of interest is the molecule, in nanochemistry it is the nanocluster, intended as a large array of atoms kept together by chemical bonds, which is isolated from other identical or similar objects. Often the nanoclusters are incorporated into a processable matrix, and the combination of the two defines a nanocomposite.