Books

the basic principles and the instruments scopy. In Chapter 6, one is familiarized
or effects of nanoscience. Thus, the with the electronic structure of solids
discussion of the Lennard–Jones poten- and with quantum confinement, and
tial is followed by the description of Chapter 7 is dedicated to heat transfer.
scanning probe microscopy, and quan- Light–matter interactions are treated in
tum confinement by single-electron Chapter 8, including paragraphs dedi-
transistors. The thematic approach cated to near-field methods and to
inherently leads to some arbitrary sep- photonic crystals. The book concludes
arations: for example, an idea of the in a somewhat unexpected direction,
different types of chemical bonding is with fluid mechanics in Chapter 9 and
given in Chapter 4, whereas the Schr!- finally “nanobiotechnology”. Whether
dinger equation is only introduced in or not the machinery of a living cell
Chapter 5; the vapor-liquid-solid growth should be considered as nanotechnology
of nanowires also belongs to Chapter 4, is debatable; however, the peculiarities
Nanotechnology although no thermodynamics appear of “life at low Reynolds number” cer-
until Chapter 7. The phenomena of the tainly have broad implications.
Understanding nanoscale are treated quantitatively, Both the content and the form of the
Small Systems. By that is, all relevant equations are pre- book are chosen so as to reach a wide
Ben Rogers, Sumita sented; however, the mathematic for- readership. To many, the informal lan-
Pennathur, and Jesse malism is deliberately kept at a mini- guage will be easier to read than the
Adams. CRC/Taylor mum. In particular, calculus and com- accurate, concise, and dry style that is
& Francis, Boca plex numbers are practically absent conventional in purely scientific writing.
Raton 2007. (except in Chapter 9). This choice Some, of course, may not consider the
328 pp., hardcover forces the authors to present most of metaphors involving caviar, basketball,
$ 89.95.—ISBN the fundamental equations in an ad hoc and bingo as indispensable, nor descrip-
978-0-8493-8207-6 manner, which is not only less satisfying tions such as “wiggling stuff”, “criss-
for the reader, but sometimes even crossing patterns of energy”, and
Teaching nanotechnology is probably as causes unnecessarily complications “crowd of churning nanoscale sub-
difficult as the subject is multifaceted (e.g. explanation of the wave functions stance” as particularly enlightening. Fig-
and ill-defined. One may want to keep it involved in tunneling without the com- ures are used abundantly to loosen-up
a class for advanced chemistry, physics, plex exponential function, and of the the text, convey the information visu-
and materials science students, in order density of states without the concept of ally, and most importantly contribute to
to be able to apply knowledge already derivative). a more intuitive understanding of small
well-grounded in quantum mechanics, The choice of topics to be treated in systems. Each chapter concludes with a
solid-state physics, and inorganic this introductory textbook was probably short summary and about 30 “home-
chemistry to small systems. Alterna- the most difficult that the authors had to work exercises”, some short ones meant
tively, an introductory nanotechnology make. They picked wisely, and the result to reiterate the main messages of the
class designed for nonspecialists repre- is a very fortunate balance in which chapter and some longer which allow
sents an opportunity to reach out with a fluorescent quantum dots, semiconduc- one to ponder about the concepts before
trendy topic. In this case, the challenge tor nanowires, catalytic porous materi- applying them. The “back-of-the-enve-
faced by the teacher (or the author, als, and lasers based on multilayers all lope” examples worked out at various
respectively) amounts to conveying effi- have their place. So do atomic force points throughout the text are probably
ciently and without oversimplification microscopy, electron microscopy, near- the most welcome feature of the text-
enough scientific background that will field techniques, and scanning tunneling book. Following them, the readers can
allow one to get a feeling for the marvels methods. The book opens with an intro- practice juggling with orders of magni-
of very small objects, their specialties, duction (Chapter 1) in which the reader tudes and familiarize themselves with
and their limitations. Nanotechnology: is made aware of some historical aspects nanoscale objects.
Understanding Small Systems rises to and of the societal impact of nano- Among the aspects not covered in
this very challenge. science. The second chapter describes the book, the magnetism of nanostruc-
Understanding such systems is the scaling laws that cause the special tures, electrochemical preparative tech-
described in ten chapters, which for- properties of very small objects. Chap- niques, and an overview of lithographic
mally divide the book thematically. In ter 3 furnishes an overview of quantum methods are probably the most prom-
this way, students are not forced to go mechanics, while Chapter 4 describes inent. Nevertheless, by the time the last
through several chapters on fundamen- chemical bonding and presents some of page is reached, the reader has obtained
tals (the boring part, they might say) the structures of interest to nanoscient- an excellent overview of the themes of
before actually coming to the applica- ists. The mechanics of oscillators are nanotechnology—the scientific princi-
tions (the fun section, so to speak). covered in Chapter 5, which concludes ples behind it, the topics of importance
Instead, the authors establish a constant with a description of scanning tunneling in research and development, the main
and quite vivifying exchange between microscopy and atomic force micro- types of interesting structures, and the

4778 ! 2008 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 4778 – 4779
 Angewandte
Chemie

techniques used to study them. In this dents outside of the natural sciences. Universit#t Hamburg and Max-Planck-
respect, Nanotechnology: Understand- Those whose interest has been piqued Institut f"r Mikrostrukturphysik, Halle
ing Small Systems will fully satisfy the by reading the book will be prepared to (Germany)
curious high-school student who wants take a full load of classes in physics,
to know what “nano” is all about. We chemistry, or materials science. DOI: 10.1002/anie.200785587
can also recommend it as an excellent
reference text for introductory college Julien Bachmann, Kornelius Nielsch
classes dedicated to freshmen or stu- Institut f"r Angewandte Physik

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 4778 – 4779 ! 2008 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim www.angewandte.org 4779