One of the major challenges facing science and society in the 21st century is sustainable energy. The dwindling supply of fossil fuels and their adverse effect on the environment make it imperative to replace these fuels with alternate forms of energy that are clean, renewable, and affordable. To meet this challenge, materials need to be developed that can efficiently harness, store, and convert energies from the sun and the wind, in addition to other renewable sources. Atomic clusters and nanostructured materials, because of their unique size and composition-specific properties, are ideally suited to address the many challenges. Note that atomic clusters are the ultimate nanoparticles where structure–property relationships can be studied one atom and one electron at a time and, hence, can address fundamental questions. The objective of the International Symposium on Clusters and Nanomaterials (ISCAN2019), held at the historic Jefferson hotel in Richmond, Virginia on November 3–7, 2019, was to gain a fundamental understanding of the materials issues in energy production, storage, and conversion. This quadrennial symposium, founded in 1982, was hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and supported by VCU, the Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the Department of Energy, Army Research Office, and ACS Energy Letters. Realizing that many of the materials issues in sustainable energies and environmental impacts of current energy technologies are intertwined and solving these problems requires a multidisciplinary team of scientists and engineers, ISCAN2019 brought together researchers from the fields of physics, chemistry, materials science, and engineering to share their ideas and results, identify outstanding problems, and develop new collaborations. A special session was also held in honor of Will Castleman, Millie Dresselhaus, Walter Kohn, and John Yates who were notably associated with The Richmond Symposium series for many years and recently passed away. (See Figure 1.) Figure 1. ISCAN2019 group photo. (Photo Courtesy: Thomas M. Kojscich) ISCAN2019, the 10th Richmond symposium, consisted of 14 plenary sessions with 41 invited speakers from 11 countries. In total, 142 conferees from 21 countries and five continents took part in this symposium. In addition to the invited talks, two poster sessions of contributed works as well as 10 hot topics talks, selected from the contributed abstracts, were presented. ISCAN2019 also covered topics in medicine and the unique role that nanomaterials can play in this area. The topics included Clean and Sustainable Energy: Production, Storage, Conversion, and Efficiency (solar, hydrogen, energy storage such as batteries and photothermal energy conversion) and Medicine (bioactive, bio responsive and biomimetic materials, nanotoxicity, bio engineering and regenerative medicine, diagnostic devices such as sensors and image enhancement, therapeutic devices such as drug design and delivery, and noninvasive cancer treatment). Crosscutting topics included nanocatalysis (e.g., new developments in core–shell catalysts), properties (electronic, optical, and magnetic), hybrid nanoparticles, carbon nanostructures, polymer nanoparticles, and nanoparticle Ferro fluids. The Richmond symposium series is a standalone event that is always held in Richmond, Virginia. There are no parallel sessions so that the interaction between all of the participants can be maximized. In addition to invited talks, each session also features a “hot topics” presentation, which is selected from the contributed abstracts. This makes it possible to bring the latest breakthroughs to the participants. Although the focus of this symposium series changes each time, it always addresses cutting edge issues important to science and society. It attracts world leaders in the area of clusters and nanostructures, and nine Nobel Laureates have been associated with this series from its inception. More about ISCAN2019 can be found from the Web site https://iscan.vcu.edu/. Important issues and challenges in energy production and storage such as solar cells, thermoelectric materials, Li-, Na-, and K-ion batteries and the role catalysts play in converting harmful gases to usable fuels were discussed. Ways to overcome materials challenges in making safer and high-energy-density batteries, solar cells stable against moisture and intense heat, and thermoelectric materials with high ZT values were discussed, and the role of nanomaterials in addressing these challenges was brought into focus. In the nanobio field, talks covered application of nanomaterials for drug design and delivery, wireless electronic nanobio sensors for global health and security, nanomaterials for the treatment of cancers, detection of intracellular analytes using nanoparticle platforms, artificial muscles, cross-talk in the amyloid assembly of peptides and proteins, etc. Potential toxicity of nanoparticles in diagnostic and therapeutic devices remains an area of concern. The symposium also featured talks on the unique potential and challenges in synthesizing cluster-assembled materials and the role of ligands and substrates on their properties. One of the highlights of the symposium was the prediction and synthesis of a new form of metastable phase of carbon that is metallic and magnetic. While more experiments are needed to confirm all of the reported properties, the prospect of creating metastable phases with molecular precursors opens new possibilities for materials genome. This work is highlighted in an article published in Science https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/11/next-graphene-shiny-and-magnetic-new-form-pure-carbon-dazzles-potential. Views expressed in this Energy Focus are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS. The author declares no competing financial interest. This article has not yet been cited by other publications. Figure 1. ISCAN2019 group photo. (Photo Courtesy: Thomas M. Kojscich)

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集群和纳米材料促进可持续能源

可持续能源是21世纪科学和社会面临的主要挑战之一。化石燃料的供应日益减少及其对环境的不利影响，必须以清洁，可再生和可负担的替代能源替代这些燃料。为了应对这一挑战，除其他可再生资源外，还需要开发能够有效利用，存储和转换太阳和风能的材料。原子团簇和纳米结构材料，由于其独特的尺寸和特定于组成的特性，非常适合应对许多挑战。请注意，原子团簇是最终的纳米粒子，可以一次研究一个原子和一个电子的结构-性质关系，因此可以解决基本问题。2019年11月3日至7日在弗吉尼亚州里士满历史悠久的杰斐逊酒店举行的国际团簇和纳米材料专题讨论会（ISCAN2019）的目的是对能源生产，存储和转换中的材料问题有一个基本的了解。这个四年一次的专题讨论会成立于1982年，由弗吉尼亚联邦大学（VCU）主办，并得到VCU，能源部基础能源科学办公室，陆军研究办公室以及ACS能源快报。意识到可持续能源中的许多材料问题和当前能源技术对环境的影响是相互交织的，而解决这些问题需要一支由科学家和工程师组成的多学科团队，ISCAN2019汇集了来自物理学，化学，材料科学和工程领域的研究人员，分享他们的想法和结果，发现突出的问题，并开展新的合作。还举行了一次特别会议，以纪念威尔·卡斯特曼，米莉·德莱瑟豪斯，沃尔特·科恩和约翰·耶茨，他们与列治文专题讨论会系列密切相关，并于最近逝世。（请参见图1。）图1. ISCAN2019合影。（照片提供：Thomas M. Kojscich）第十届里士满研讨会ISCAN2019包括14次全体会议，来自11个国家的41位特邀演讲者。共有来自21个国家和五大洲的142位参会者参加了这次研讨会。除了受邀的演讲外，还提供了两篇有关贡献作品的海报会议以及从贡献摘要中选出的10个热门话题的演讲。ISCAN2019还涵盖了医学主题以及纳米材料在该领域可发挥的独特作用。包含的主题清洁和可持续能源：生产，储存，转化和效率（太阳能，氢气，能量存储，例如电池和光热能转化）和药物（生物活性，生物响应性和仿生材料，纳米毒性，生物工程和再生医学，诊断设备）作为传感器和图像增强，治疗设备（例如药物设计和投放以及非侵入性癌症治疗）。横切主题包括纳米催化（例如，核-壳催化剂的新发展），性能（电子，光学和磁性），杂化纳米颗粒，碳纳米结构，聚合物纳米颗粒和纳米颗粒费罗流体。列治文专题讨论会系列是独立活动，始终在弗吉尼亚州里士满举行。没有并行的会话，因此可以最大化所有参与者之间的交互。除了受邀的演讲外，每个环节还以“热门话题”演讲为特色，该演讲选自摘要。这样就可以为参与者带来最新的突破。尽管这个座谈会系列的重点每次都在变化，但它始终致力于解决对科学和社会重要的前沿问题。它吸引了簇和纳米结构领域的世界领导者，从一开始，就有九位诺贝尔奖获得者与该系列有关。有关ISCAN2019的更多信息，可以从网站https://iscan.vcu.edu/找到。讨论了能源生产和存储中的重要问题和挑战，例如太阳能电池，热电材料，锂离子，钠离子和K离子电池，以及催化剂在将有害气体转化为可用燃料方面所起的作用。讨论了克服材料挑战的方法，以制造更安全，高能量密度的电池，耐潮和耐高温的太阳能电池以及具有高ZT值的热电材料，并重点关注了纳米材料在应对这些挑战中的作用。在纳米生物领域，讲座涉及纳米材料在药物设计和交付中的应用，用于全球健康和安全的无线电子纳米生物传感器，用于治疗癌症的纳米材料，使用纳米粒子平台检测细胞内分析物，人造肌肉，肽和蛋白质的淀粉状蛋白组装体中的串扰等。纳米粒子在诊断和治疗设备中的潜在毒性仍然是人们关注的领域。专题讨论会还就有关合成簇组装材料的独特潜力和挑战以及配体和底物在其性能方面的作用进行了专题讨论。研讨会的亮点之一是金属和磁性碳的新形式的亚稳相的预测和合成。尽管需要更多的实验来确认所有报道的特性，但利用分子前体产生亚稳相的前景为材料基因组学开辟了新的可能性。在《科学》（Science）https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/11/next-graphene-shiny-and-magnetic-new-form-pure-carbon-dazzles-potential上发表的一篇文章中重点介绍了这项工作。本“能源焦点”中表达的观点是作者的观点，不一定是ACS的观点。作者声明没有竞争性的经济利益。本文尚未被其他出版物引用。图1. ISCAN2019合影。（照片提供：托马斯·科西奇）