ABOUT THE BOOK

The present volume, “New applications of nanomaterials” belongs to the “Micro and nano engineering” series, coordinated by Acad. Dan Dascalu, and edited by the Publishing House of the Romanian Academy. This volume consists of the extended versions of the most relevant papers selected from the 12th edition of the Annual National Seminar for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (Bucharest, May 13th, 2013).
The papers published in this volume address a large area of very interesting applications among which there can be emphasized the environmental ones: AuNPs/LDHS assemblies as nanoarchitectures for environmental photocatalysts; possible environmental applications of graphene-based nanomaterials; functionalized porous alginate beads for environmental decontamination. Some medical applications are also present, the effect of titanate nanotubes against moderately halophilic bacteria being one of them. Applications of nanomaterials in electronics include nanoscale diodes without p-n junctions and last but not at least, nanomaterials for restoration and conservation of historical monuments offer new solutions for preserving the authenticity of the historical heritage. Another group of researchers at the Seminar presented new routes for synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials which can be the seeds for new applications in the near future.

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FOREWORD

The new volume "New applications of nanomaterials" belongs to the "Micro and nano engineering" series, edited by the Publishing House of the Romanian Academy. This volume consists of the extended versions of the most relevant papers selected from the 12th edition of the Annual National Seminar for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (Bucharest, May 13th, 2013).
The manuscripts published in this volume address a large area of very interesting applications among which there can be emphasized the environmental ones:
AuNPs/LDHS assemblies as nanoarchitectures for environmental photocatalysts;
possible environmental applications of graphene-based nanomaterials; functionalized porous alginate beads for environmental decontamination. Some medical applications are also present, the effect of titanate nanotubes against moderately halophilic bacteria being one of them. Applications of nanomaterials in electronics include nanoscale diodes without p-n junctions and last but not at least, nanomaterials for restoration and conservation of historical monuments offer new solutions for obeying to the principle of preserving the authenticity of historical heritage.
From this very short summary of the contributions it results a broad area of applications, but not enough for another group of researchers at the Seminar who presented new routes of synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials which can be the seeds for new applications in the near future.
This first sub-set of manuscripts presents studies on carbon-based nanomaterials such as: boron-doped diamond nanowires (BDD NWs) for the sensitive detection of amino acids in binary mixtures and in proteins, conditions for carbon nano-onions deposition, using excimer laser to ablate a commercial pure graphite, further characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses and thermodynamic studies on exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets dispersed in water, and N,N-dimethylformamide, respectively, at different concentrations of solvate and at different temperatures.
The second sub-set of manuscripts of this group containing synthetic routes and characterization refers to inorganic nanomaterials strategies for simultaneous control of tetragonality, size and shape in barium titanate, the effect of lanthanum and gallium and of the thermal treatment on the surface composition and structure of titanosilicate systems and the major interest of these systems in different applications.
The volume "New applications of nanomaterials" contains eleven papers (170 pages) and it might help the experienced researchers in this field to find new motivations to continue and the new comers to gain the enthusiasm to make the first steps in the magic nano world.

The editors, March 2014