Size dependence of nanostructures: Impact of bond order deficiency

This report deals with the mechanism behind the unusual behavior of nanostructures in mechanical strength, thermal stability, acoustics (lattice dynamics), photonics, electronics, magnetism, dielectrics, and chemical reactivity and its indication for designing and fabricating nanostructured materials with de-sired functions. A bond-order-length-strength (BOLS) correlation mechanism has been initiated and inten-sively verified, which has enabled the tunability of a variety of properties of a nanosolid to be universally reconciled to the effect of bond order deficiency of atoms at sites surrounding defects or near the surface edges of the nanosolid. The BOLS correlation indicates that atomic coordination imperfection causes the remaining bonds of the under-coordinated atom to contract spontaneously associated with bond strength gain and the intraatomic trapping potential well depression. Consequently, localized densification of charge, energy and mass occurs to the surface skin, which modify the atomic coherency (the product of bond number and the single bond energy), electroaffinity (separation between the vacuum level and the conduction band edge), work function, and the Hamiltonian of the nanosolid. Therefore, any detectable quantity can be functionalized depending on the atomic coherency, electroaffinity, work function, Hamil-tonian or their combinations. For instances, the perturbed Hamiltonian determines the entire band structur