“…Structural, magnetic, electronic, and catalytic properties of many materials are strongly size-dependent at the nanometer scale, and the preparation of high-quality nanocrystals of desired size is of great fundamental and technological interest. − The synthesis of metal colloids has been studied for more than a century, yet the number of preparations yielding a size series of monodisperse metal nanocrystals is surprisingly small. ,, Control of nanocrystal size and composition is key in the formation of two- and three-dimensional self-assembled structures where the individual nanocrystals play the role of building-blocks artificial atoms in the next level of material hierarchy. ,,, Moreover, in the past decades, magnetic recording technology has made tremendous gains in data storage density, partially by scaling down the grain size of thin-film media. ,, In this direction, one of the Chemistry Highlights of 2000 was reported bySun and co-workers 7 at IBM, regarding the synthesis, self-assembly, and magnetic recording performance of FePt nanoparticles. , …”