Figure shows the fraction of journal and patent documents containing different types of nanostructures in in the CAS Content Collection, and the variation of their occurrences in journal and patent publications between 2018 and 2022. Nanoparticles are the most prevalent structure type in journal and patent documents, with similar prevalence in both journals and patents. The synthesis of nanoparticles is likely the best-known and most reproducible of the nanoscale synthetic methods and thus the most amenable to investigation. Their high surface area:mass ratios make them most available for reactivity and sensing and thus effective platforms for testing new sensing modalities. Quantum dots, while similar in shape and widely useful, as evidenced by the most recent Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 140 may be more limited to use in optical and electronic sensing because of their semiconducting nature, while the formation of stable nanocrystals is complex and (depending on crystal morphology) may reduce the desired effects.