Contribution to Special Issue

Dear Colleague,

We are delighted to invite you to contribute to the high-profile EPJ AP Special issue:

Nanoalloys: Kinetic and Environmental Behaviour

Guest edited by:

The special issue will be published in the European Physical Journal Applied Physics (EPJ AP) in 2021. It will receive great exposure, and get significant promotion.

EPJ AP is a high-quality, community spanning, international journal publishing work of recent progresses in the field of applied physics dedicated to materials and solid-state sciences properties

Deadline for Submissions:  December 15th, 2021

Alloy nanoparticles are bi- or multi-component metallic nanoparticles which are often called Nanoalloys. The tremendous growth of interest for nanoalloys comes from the fact that their chemical and physical properties can be tuned by varying their composition and degree of chemical ordering, as well as the size of the nanoparticles. The properties of nanoalloys can be very different from those of the corresponding bulk alloys and single-metal nanoparticles of the same size.

The aim of this Special Issue on “Nanoalloys: kinetic and environmental behavior” is twofold:

– first, provide thorough account of the most exciting current research on the kinetic and environment effects which control the equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium nanoalloy structures and second, extensively document its impact on nanoparticle’s chemical and physical properties. A crucial objective in nanoalloy research is to define experimental protocols for controlling both the distribution of the components inside individual nanoparticles and the spatial distribution of a population of nanoparticles in their medium.

– The second main challenge is to predict the structural evolution in realistic conditions of use or storage (in situ). Nanoalloys are frequently prepared under non-equilibrium conditions which produce metastable configurations evolving to the equilibrium state on a variety of time scales. From the very initial stage of nucleation to long-time ageing, the kinetic way from metastable structures towards a thermodynamic equilibrium may include several steps, from growth to ripening, even coalescence, by diffusion processes in or between particles…
These phenomena may also happen because the environment is changing with time. For example nanoalloys may be exposed to a change in temperature, or to a reactive environment (in presence of gas or atmosphere, in a matrix, on a support, in liquid and/or passivated by organic ligands) which induces a change of their equilibrium state. A scientific breakthrough in this domain would be achieved by a true combination of theoretical modelling of kinetic behaviour, with in situ and real time experimental investigation methods, like synchrotron and lab spectroscopies, scattering or microscopies.

Finally the impact of these behaviours on the catalytic, magnetic or optical properties is in the core of these questions and of this issue.

All relevant papers will be carefully considered, reviewed by a distinguished team of international experts, and published in accordance to the Journal’s standard policies . Full research papers and comprehensive review articles can be submitted online via the journal’s submission and peer review site.


Please do let us know if you are able to accept this invitation by replying to this email. We look forward to hearing from you.

With our best regards,

Publications manager: Agnès Henri
Publishing Editors: Ariana Fuga and Yuqing Lin
Production manager: Dominique Honoré
https://www.epjap.org/about-the-journal/aims-and-scope
Special issue in association with the International Research Network  IRN CNRS« Nanoalloys », http://nanoalloys-irn.cnrs.fr/