Diffraction at the nanoscale. Nanocrystals, defective & amorphous materials

Three years after the publication of the book “Analisi di materiali policristallini mediante tecniche di diffrazione” by Insubria University Press, we deemed it necessary to widen the scope of our contributions, and to focus on a new, frontier, subject, such as the world of nanomaterials and the most advanced scattering and imaging techniques used for characterizing finite nanosized objects. This book, thus, collects the contributions of many experts in the field and is specifically targeted to the new generation of crystallographers and material scientists dealing with nanocrystalline and defective materials. Both the novice and the experienced scientists will likely find new and relevant scientific aspects, as well as a large up-to-date bibliographic section. Publication of this book on the occasion of the joint AIC-PSI-SSCr International School held in Villigen (CH) in May 2010, was also possible through the volunteering of all the authors, as well as by the generous funding of scientific and didactic projects supported by the Insubria International Summer School, Fondazione CARIPLO, International Union for Crystallography, Swiss National Science Foundation and International Centre for Diffraction Data. Antonietta Guagliardi (09.06.1962) is a Staff Research Scientist at the Istituto di Cristallografia of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and Professor of Analytical and Structural Methods for Crystalline Matter at the Università dell’Insubria in Como, Italy. She is a member of the European Powder Diffraction Conference Steering Committee, of the Italian Crystallographic Society and Coordinator of the National Commission for Teaching Crystallography. Norberto Masciocchi (30.09.1959) is Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the Università dell’Insubria in Como, Italy. He is a member of the International Center for Diffraction Data, of the Steering Committee of the XXII IUCr Congress (Madrid 2011), of the Italian Crystallographic Society Board and Editor of the Powder Diffraction Journal. Beyond their scientific interests on diffraction methods for the characterization of polycrystalline matter, on the structural properties of inorganic and metallorganic functional materials, and, more recently, on nanocrystalline materials, they have organized a number of International Schools in the field.