Aggregates, precursors of nanoparticles

作者：Belloni Jacqueline^*; Mostafavi Mehran

来源：Actualite Chimique, 2011, 348-49: 13-20.

• Aggregates
• nucleation-growth
• nanoparticles
• thermodynamics
• reduction potential

Aggregates are compounds constituted of a small number (or nuclearity) n of atoms or molecules. They represent an intermediate state of matter, also named mesoscopic, between both stable states of single atoms (or molecules) and the bulky condensed phase. The aggregates were for long out of reach to experimental observation due to their extremely small size and also to their short life-time. They tend indeed, depending on the thermodynamical conditions, to evaporate, sublimate or dissolve, or on the contrary to grow toward the bulky condensed phase. Likewise, theory could not for long describe the aggregates and the complexity of these multi-atomic supra-molecules. However, the very specific properties of aggregates, which are distinct from the bulk, precisely appear for the smallest sizes, between a few tenths of nanometers and a few nanometers. The present knowledge of their behavior is crucial since it governs the shape, structure, reactivity or stability of nanoparticles that they form as precursors and that have an increasing role in nanotechnologies.

• 出版日期2011-2