Nanomaterials, such as nano-sized inorganic and organic semiconductors, insulators and metals are at the focus of scientific research due to their unique electronic, mechanical, and thermodynamic properties. Examples of nanomaterial applications abound, ranging from light-emitting diodes, to photoenergy conversion, to room-temperature magnetism, and to biological optical probes and drug delivery. From a more basic standpoint, nanomaterials are key players in a wide variety of natural and artificial systems and phenomena, and so understanding of the properties of such materials is of paramount importance. Nanomaterials have unique electronic structures that cannot be simply defined as conventional continuum (as in a periodic system), nor discrete quantum levels (as in a molecule). In addition, complicated physicochemical processes that occur at the surfaces and interfaces of these nanomaterials poses high demands on the experimental techniques used to characterize nanoscale systems. Theory and computations, joined with data-driven methods, such as machine learning and cheminformatics, could provide useful interpretations of experimental data and faster predictions of structure-property relationships that will inspire new experimental efforts in synthesis and characterization of novel nanomaterials with targeted functionalities.

The conference aims to bring together theoreticians and experimentalists for a timely discussion of modern developments, applications, and challenges in nanomaterial research from both theoretical and experimental perspectives.