ISSPIC or International Symposium on Small Particles and Inorganic Clusters is an established biennial conference series on fundamental science of atomically small particles, organized since 1976. The conference topics typically include atomic and molecular clusters and their assemblies, supported and free-standing Nanostructures and -particles, and other nanometer-scale systems.
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History and development
The first ISSPIC conference was held in 1976 in Lyon. The idea to organize an international meeting of scientists who research the nanomolecular and atomic structures was given by pioneers in nanophysics such as Jean Farges, Jacques Friedel, Walter Knight, Ryogo Kubo, and Bernhardt Mühlschlegel. Friedel was also the chairman of the first conference.
The main theme of the first couple of ISSPIC symposiums was fundamental studies on the finite-size effects of atomic and molecular clusters. The discussion emphasized the physical aspects. At the beginning the conference was organized every fourth year but since 1988 it was held every two years. The conference has become a fundamental event on the area of the nanoscience and the research of nanoclusters during the last decades.
Conference topics
Scientists, such as chemists, physicists and nanotechnogists, who do the research on the area of atomic or molecular clusters and structures, nanoparticles and nanostructures, introduce and discuss about the latest results and scientific achievements in the ISSPIC conference. The discussion also provides new approaches into these topics.
On 12 September 1990 during the 5th ISSPIC which was held in Konstanz, Germany, Richard Smalley and Wolfgang Kratschmer presented their report on large-scale production of C60 (fullerenes). This discovery caused a huge growth in materials science of nanocarbons. It also revealed the essential role of chemistry in the utilization of molecular clusters as a functional unit of the new materials.
A great part of the latest research results which were introduced in the conference in Fukuoka, Japan in 2014 were related to gold and silver nanoparticles. The research has mainly focused on the metallic nanostructures recently. One of the growing research interests has been the ligand-protected metallic clusters. In addition to gold and silver, other metals such as platinum, palladium, copper, nickel, zirconium and niobium are used in the experiments and also metalloid materials like silicon. Other issues were different type of molecular structures and magnetic, optical, chemical, and thermal properties of those structures.