Dynamic organic templating as a means of controlling sizes and shapes of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals

vAcknowledgments First, I would like to thank my advisor, prof. Angela Agostiano, for her guidance in my research during my doctoral studies, and Prof. Mario Della Monica, for the chance to work in his laboratory and for his constant suggestions. I also would like to acknowledge the members of the CNR CFILM, and especially Dr. Lucia Curri, who first introduced me to the field of nanocrystals research. She is an excellent scientist, and invaluable coworker, and a great friend. I would like to thank Dr. Gabriella Leo, from the CNR IME (Lecce), with whom I started a fruitful cooperation, for her support in the various experiments, for the incredible amount of things she taught me throughout my project, and for her criticism, which always encouraged me to do better. I also thank Dr. Massimo Catalano (CNR IME) for his assistance in TEM experiments, and Dr. Vincenzo Spagnolo (INFM, Bari) for his assistance in Raman experiments. There are several people from the University of California, Berkeley that I would like to acknowledge. I owe much to prof. Paul Alivisatos, who gave me the unique chance to work in his group. A special thanks goes to prof. Xiaogang Peng, for his guidance during the first six months of my stay in Berkeley, and for sharing with me his knowledge on nanocrystals synthesis. I also want to acknowledge all the people with whom I have collaborated in Berkeley: Erik Scher, Juanita Wickham, Wendy Huynh, Fabio Zurcher, Weidong Yang, Jiangtao Hu, and Andrew Lim. I am indebted to all the friends with whom I shared this period of my life, and who always supported me. I consider myself lucky because I met so many special people. I thank my parents, my sisters and my brother, for their affection, for being what I am now. Finally, I want to thank Teresa for her love and her devotion, especially during the long periods when we were far apart. Teresa, I love you so much!