Title: Multifunctionalization of Nanostructured Metal Oxides
Abstract: Metal oxides are a rich family of materials that have nourished many research areas.From colossal magnetoresistance to multiferroicity and from catalysts to wearable devices, metal oxides never lack new materials with fascinating properties and great potential for device applications.The ability to control materials at the nanometric level has further broadened the landscape of research for metal oxides.With rational control of sizes, structures, compositions, and morphologies, nanostructured metal oxides can possess novel optical, electronic, magnetic, and/or mechanical properties that do not exist in bulk forms.These properties have enabled applications of metal oxides in various areas, including electronics, photonics, sensors, catalysis, photovoltaics, and batteries.A better understanding of the origin of novel metal oxide properties promises further improvements that are waiting to be discovered, yet difficulties still exist for applications that require integrating or balancing multiple aspects of the material properties.The integration of metal oxides in prototype devices needs innovations in synthesis, functionalization, assembly, and characterization of nanostructures, which in turn will inspire new applications of metal oxides.This special issue features articles that address these challenges.The authors report here their achievements in the design, fabrication, modification, and characterization of multifunctional metal oxide nanostructures.It is worth noting that YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7- (YBCO) is a well-known material for "high temperature superconductivity."However, in the paper entitled "Photocatalytically Active YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7- Nanoparticles Synthesized via a Soft Chemical Route," Z. Shen et al. explored the chemical properties of YBCO