Amorphous Nanomaterials. Lin Guo

      Foreword

      The word is unity of opposites, which is described as Yin and Yang in Chinese philosophy. In the field of materials, the structures, features, or properties of materials are also unities of opposites, for example, hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity in the interface of materials, anisotropy, and isotropy in arrangement of materials, strength, and toughness in mechanics of materials.

      In addition to the traditional crystallography, amorphous materials are a strong complement to condensed matter physics. Even though the present progress of solid materials is mainly based on crystal with regular atomic arrangement, the rule of the disordered word is also fascinating. Nanoscale amorphous materials are very important member of the non-crystalline solids family and have emerged as a new category of advanced materials. Compared to the crystalline counterpart, amorphous nanomaterials with isotropic nature always exhibit fast ion diffusion, relieved strain, and higher reactivity, which enable amorphous nanomaterials to exhibit high performance in catalysis, energy storage and mechanics, as well as other interesting properties.

      Based on the rich experience of nanomaterials, Prof. Lin Guo has made great contributions for the propelling of nanoscale amorphous materials. He is one of the earliest scientists who put forward the universal synthetic strategies of nanoscale amorphous materials with regular morphologies. He also creatively discovered a series of systematic laws between amorphous structure and the property of catalysis, energy storage, mechanics, optics, etc. As the colleague and friend of Prof. Guo, I have known him for more than twenty years. We often discuss about the probable and potential applications of nanoscale amorphous materials. He is an intelligent scientist with active mind and inexhaustible creativity.

      This book is an excellent treatise for nanoscale amorphous materials, in which some emerging innovative methods to fabricate well-defined amorphous nanomaterials are systematically reviewed, including 0D, 1D, 2D, 3D, and coated or doped amorphous nanomaterials. Apart from that, some powerful techniques for the characterization of amorphous materials are also addressed. Finally, he focused on the various fascinating applications related to amorphous nanomaterials, including the applications in electrocatalysis, batteries, supercapacitors, photocatalysis, and mechanics.

      This book is informative and valuable in professional and common disciplines, which is also easy to understand. I believe that this book is of great significance to promote the rapid development of amorphous nanomaterials. It has reference value for those engaged in related scientific research.