With the recent advent of nanotechnology, research and development in the area of nanostructured materials has gained unprecedented prominence. Novel materials with potentially exciting new applications are being discovered at a much higher rate than ever before. Innovative tools to fabricate, manipulate, characterize and evaluate such materials are being developed and expanded. To keep pace with this extremely rapid growth, it is necessary to take a breath from time to time, to critically assess the current knowledge and provide thoughts for future developments. This book represents one of these moments, as a number of prominent scientists in nanostructured materials join forces to provide insightful reviews of their areas of expertise, thus offering an overall picture of the state-- the art of the field. Nanostructured materials designate an increasing number of materials with designed shapes, surfaces, structures, pore systems, etc. Nanostructured materials with modified surfaces include those whose surfaces have been altered via such techniques as grafting and tethering of organic or organometallic species, or through various deposition procedures including electro, electroless and vapor deposition, or simple adsorption. These materials find important applications in catalysis, separation and environmental remediation. Materials with patterned surfaces, which are essential for the optoelectronics industry, constitute another important class of surface-modified nanostructured materials. Other materials are considered nanostructured because of their composition and internal organization.

Multifunctional Active Sites on Silica Surfaces by Grafting of Metal Complexes.- Nanostructured Rare Earth Catalysts Via Advanced Surface Grafting.- Silsesquioxanes: Advanced Model Supports in Developing Silica-Immobilized Polymerization Catalysts.- Theoretical Models of Active Sites: General Considerations and Application to the Study of Phillips-Type Cr/Silica Catalysts for Ethylene Polymerization.- Late Transition Metal Complexes Immobilized on Structured Surfaces as Catalysts for Hydrogenation and Oxidation Reactions.- Design of Chiral Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Mesoporous Materials as Enantioselective Epoxidation and Alkylation Catalysts.- Chiral Nanostructures at Metal Surfaces: a New Viewpoint on Enantioselective Catalysis.- On the Structure of Cobalt-Substituted Aluminophosphate Catalysts and Their Catalytic Performance.- Catalytic Activity of Pt and Tungsto-Phosphoric Acid Supported on MCM-41 for the Reduction of NO.- Polymerization with Mesoporous Silicates.- Designing Porous Solids over Multiple Pore Size Regimes.- Strategies for the Control of Porosity around Organic Active Sites in Inorganic Matrices.- Strategies for the Design and Synthesis of Hybrid Multifunctional Nanoporous Materials.- Quantitative Relations Between Liquid Phase Adsorption and Catalysis.