A Review of Top-Down Strategies for the Production of Quantum-Sized Materials

Nanoscience and technology have made significant achievements in the past few decades. Quantum-sized materials, as a key component of nanomaterials, have attracted increasing interest due to their unique structures and extremely reduced sizes. Such fascinating materials have been widely applied in various fields because of their strong quantum confinement and remarkable surface/edge effects. Production methods have an important impact on the properties of quantum-sized materials. Considering that many previous reviews have reported the synthesis of quantum-sized materials by bottom-up methods, this review will focus on the top-down methods. The advantages and disadvantages of each strategy are analyzed. At the end, the perspectives and challenges toward the future development of quantum-sized materials are discussed.