Nanomaterials bridge the gaps between crystalline materials, thin films, and
molecules, and are of great importance in the design of new classes of
materials, since the existence of many modifications of a nano-object for the
same overall composition allows us to tune the properties of the
nanomaterial. However, the structural analysis of nano-size systems is often
difficult and their structural stability is frequently relatively low. Thus,
a study of their energy landscape is needed to determine or predict possible
structures, and analyse their stability, via the determination of the minima
on the landscape and the generalized barriers separating them. In this
contribution, we introduce the major concepts of energy landscapes for
chemical systems, and present summaries of four applications to
nano-materials: a MgO monolayer on a sapphire substrate, possible quasitwo-
dimensional carbon-silicon networks, the ab initio energy landscape of
Cu4Ag4-clusters, and the possible arrangements of ethane molecules on an
ideally smooth substrate.
Sound scattering by several zooplankton groups. I. Experimental determination of dominant scattering mechanisms