Organic/inorganic Hybrid Materials: Symposium Held April 13-17, 1998, San Francisco, California, U.s.a

In materials science, it is well known that: processing and intrinsic materials properties together dictate microstructure; that intrinsic materials properties and microstructure together dictate macroscopic properties; and that control of processing at finest scales gives the highest homogeneity or controlled heterogeneity, and therefore the best control of final properties. In principle, if one can control processing to achieve the highest homogeneity (or controlled heterogeneity), then it should be possible to obtain exceptional control of a material's reproducibility, predictability and tailorability. Over the past 30 years, tremendous investments of time, energy and resources have been made to learn to control materials properties at the atomic scale using chemical processing methods. Successes in chemical processing are now being extended to the next length scales (1-1000nm) to produce nanocomposite or organic/inorganic hybrid materials. Recent exceptional advances in hybrid materials synthesis, characterization and processing suggest that this area will occupy scientists and engineers for at least as long a period, and prompted this collection of interdisciplinary research papers.