Hybrid organic-inorganic materials and the rational design of their interfaces open up the access to a wide spectrum of functionalities not achievable with traditional concepts of materials science. This innovative class of materials has a major impact in many application domains such as optics, electronics, mechanics, energy storage and conversion, protective coatings, catalysis, sensing and nanomedicine. The properties of these materials do not only depend on the chemical structure, and the mutual interaction between their nano-scale building blocks, but are also strongly influenced by the interfaces they share.

This handbook focuses on the most recent investigations concerning the design, control, and dynamics of hybrid organic-inorganic interfaces, covering: (i) characterization methods of interfaces, (ii) innovative computational approaches and simulation of interaction processes, (iii) in-situ studies of dynamic aspects controlling the formation of these interfaces, and (iv) the role of the interface for process optimization, devices, and applications in such areas as optics, electronics, energy and medicine.


Marie-Helene Delville is a Senior Researcher at French National Centre for Scientific Research CNRS since 1985 and in the Institute of Condensed Matter of Bordeaux since 1997. Her research interests are focused on the fundamental and practical aspects involved in the synthesis of organic-inorganic colloidal nano-objects as well as the role of interfaces. She has been from 2012 to 2016, the chair of a European COST action (Action No MP1202, section Materials, Physics, and Nanosciences) concerning the 'Rational design of hybrid organic-inorganic interfaces: the next step towards advanced functional materials'.

Andreas Taubert is Professor of Supramolecular Chemistry at the University of Potsdam, Germany. After his PhD at the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz he was a postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, and then a group leader at the University of Basel, Switzerland. His research interests are bioinspired hybrid materials and materials chemistry with ionic liquids. Since 2010 he has been one of the organizers of a series of symposia on hybrid materials at the E-MRS Spring Meetings.