Preface to the First Edition
To the Student
Nanoscience is a rapidly changing field where new innovations and discoveries are being made every day. To write a book that captures even a
fraction of what the scientific literature has produced over the last few
years would be a monumental task. With this in mind, the topics presented in this book are carefully selected to provide a basic understanding
of the field. Many important topics, such as computational chemistry and
solid state physics, have been given limited coverage, largely because I
want this book to be accessible to any student who has taken introductory
college-level science courses.
This book is written for a full- or half-semester course in nanoscience with
an emphasis on understanding nanomaterials. The stress on “understanding” is the key behind the objective of the text: to provide fundamental insight into the molecular driving force underlying self-assembly
processes, as well as to explain how to characterize the resulting nanomaterials. Knowledge of self-assembly and characterization is essential
for an understanding of these interesting systems.
It should be noted that this book does not draw heavily from scientific
papers; rather, it should be used in conjunction with the primary
literature.
xix