Editorial [Hot Topic: Nano-Organic Chemistry (Guest Editor: Dr. Jian Weng)]

Conventional organic chemistry treated low molecular weight compounds. Nano-organic chemistry is a new organic chemistry that treats nanoscale reactions and nano-sized compounds with the molecular weight of more than several thousands. Nano-organic chemistry is a rapidly developing area of research because of its importance in syntheses and functionalization of organic, inorganic and hybrid organic/inorganic nanomaterials dealing with organic systems. This special Hot Topic issue highlights the substantial progresses on syntheses of nanomaterials by organic molecules, functionalization of nanomaterials by organic syntheses, nanocatalyst-based organic reactions, preparation of porous films by the method of breath figure and switching properties and dynamic functions of supramolecular systems. In current nanomaterials syntheses, choice of appropriate organic precursors is becoming more and more important to control the shape and size of nanomaterials. The first review came from G. M. Huang and J. Weng, Department of Biomaterials, College of Materials, Xiamen University, China. They focus mainly on preparation of carbon nanomaterials with different shapes made by ferrocene. In recent years, “click” chemistry has emerged as an attractive and promising synthesis approach to functionalize nanomaterials. H. K. He and C. Gao, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, China, focuses on the click chemistry on the hard and soft nano-surfaces in the second review. In current organic synthesis, choice of appropriate catalysts is becoming more and more important. Among those catalysts, noble metal nanoparticles catalyst is one type of the most important catalysts and has been successfully applied in organic synthesis reactions. In the third review, provided by W. Q. Sheng, Q. Yang and J. Weng, Department of Biomaterials, College of Materials, Xiamen University, China, focuses on applications of noble metal nanoparticles with different sizes and structures in hydrogenation, dehydrogenation, selective oxidation, alkylation and other reactions. The fourth review was contributed by X. P. Xiong, M. F. Lin, W. W. Zou and Y. Jin, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Materials, Xiamen University and Unilever R&D Shanghai, China. The review highlights history and development of honeycomb structured porous films prepared by the method of breath figure. In current nanotechnology, bottom-up approaches where supramolecular chemistry plays a crucial role are gradually gaining in importance relative to the top-down approaches. A key process of the bottom-up approaches is self-assembly of component materials where supramolecular chemistry plays a crucial role. Well-designed structures formed through self-assembly particularly make excellent prototypes for functioning man-made devices. K. Ariga, S. Ishihara, J. Labuta and J. P. Hill, World Premier International (WPI) Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan, contribute to the last review, which deals with supramolecular approaches in nanotechnology for developing switching properties and dynamic functions that are summarized and classified into three categories: (i) molecular functions in solution; (ii) hard supramolecular systems; (iii) soft supramolecular systems. Finally, I, as a guest editor for this special issue, would like to thank all of the authors for their valuable and excellent contributions. I also sincerely thank all the reviewers for their valuable comments.