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As the International Year of Crystallography is going on, the crystallographic community is actively involved in a number of activities and events to connect crystallography and society. The European Area, where the seminal discoveries took place, combines the traditional out-reach activities carried out during the last few years with several new activities to make crystallography and crystallization attractive to the public in general. The crystal growing competitions, involving high schools, organized since 2008 in Spain, are in 2014 very popular in the ECA Area. Since 2011, a Summer Scientific Campus has been held at the University of Oviedo in which the students develop a research project that incorporates crystallography as the core theme (X-Ray diffraction in the Forensic Science, Crystallisation and Mineralogy Workshops) [1]. An extension of that is the Spanish program for IYCr2014 "Science, Crystals and Society" [2]. For the European activities, the ECA Executive Committee created the IYCr2014 Coordination Committee, to gather initiatives in the ECA area and to be a link with the IUCr worldwide supervision of IYCr2014. "Discovering", "Getting involved" and "Communicating" are the three key points to connect scientists and society. The main objective of this project is to integrate and disseminate the science of crystallography into the European society, particularly among students, boosting the European dimension of the Project. "Discovering", "Getting involved" and "Communicating" are the three key points that will connect scientists and society. This European platform (http://www.iycr2014.eu) and the associated social networks content are the European links between crystallography and society using a number of tools: A dedicated IP/TV, ITunesU Chanel, or the Google Course Builder tool platform. Acknowledgements: Financial support from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad de España (MAT2010-15094, Factoría de Cristalización-Consolider Ingenio 2010) and ERDF.
abstracts
Recent advances in the field of nanotechnology produced an assortment of one-dimensional (1D) structures, such as nanowires and nanorods. These fascinating materials are the potential building blocks for a wide range of nanoscale electronics, optoelectronics, magnetoelectronics, or sensing devices [1]. Parallel to the success with group IV and groups III–V compounds semiconductor nanostructures, semiconducting metal oxide materials with wide band gaps are attracting attention [2-3]. The main aim of this communication is to report our results on the application of several new techniques, particularly the use of hydrothermal synthesis, to fabricate single crystal one-dimensional nanostructured materials, study their growth processes, understand the growth mechanisms and investigate their physical properties. A wide range of remarkable features are then presented, to cover a number of metal oxides, such as ZnO, Sb2O3, CdS, MgO, α-Fe2O3, or TiO2, describing their structures, optical, magnetic, mechanical and chemical sensing properties. These studies constitute the basis for developing versatile applications based on metal oxide 1D systems as well as highlighting the current progress in device development. To exemplify, the as-prepared CdS nanowires have average 28 nm in diameter and length up to several micrometres. The direct band gap of the CdS nanowires is 2.56 eV calculated by the UV-vis absorption spectra. The PL spectrum has two distinct emission bands at 502 nm and 695 nm, which are associated with the near-band-edge emission and defect emission, respectively. These synthesized single-crystal CdS nanowires have a high potential in the optoelectronic applications of nanolasers, solar cells, lighting-emitting diodes or photodetectors. Acknowledgments: Erasmus Mundus MEDASTAR (Mediterranean Area for Science, Technology and Research) Programme, 2011–4051/002–001-EMA2, Spanish MINECO (MAT2010-15094, Factoría de Cristalización – Consolider Ingenio 2010) and ERDF.
