Carbon nanomaterials: chemical rookie shine

Carbon nanomaterials based on fullerenes, graphenes and carbon nanotubes are the most promising new materials in this century. It is a pride that China’s research on carbon nanomaterials started earlier. With a number of influential research and innovation achievements, we have won the right to speak in this field.

The family of materials continues to grow

Professor Wang Chunru from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences introduced: “The rapid development of nanoscience and technology has benefited from carbon nanomaterials such as fullerenes and nanotubes discovered in the 1980s and graphene emerging in recent years. New materials such as nanohorns, graphynes, etc. In turn, the development of nanotechnology has also provided increasingly convenient research tools for carbon nanomaterials. The two complement each other and are co-prosperous."

As one of the most important and most active fields in nanoscience research, carbon nanotechnology has now entered a mature research stage after its climax in the 1990s, and related results have been widely used. Today, the formation mechanism of fullerenes has been basically clear, and industrialization has been achieved in modern science and technology and high-tech industries. Other carbon nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, etc. are also in full swing.

Applied Research

“The rapid development of nanotechnology has brought new opportunities and challenges to the research of catalyst materials,” said Hong Maoji, an academician at Fujian Institute of Materials Science and Technology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He said that if carbon nanocatalytic materials can be used in the efficient use of fossil resources and energy conservation and emission reduction research Achieving a breakthrough will have tremendous economic and social benefits. Especially in the industrial production process of coal-to-ethylene glycol, carbon nanotube composite metal nanomaterials have a significant effect on the improvement of catalytic performance.

Wang Chunru told reporters that more and more fullerene products are widely used in biomedicine, daily life, and industry; carbon nanotubes are widely used in composite materials and photoelectric materials; graphene in high-strength composite materials and semiconductors There are potential applications in the device. He stressed: "In the future, carbon nanomaterials research should pay more attention to the application level."

The application of carbon nanomaterials in the biomedical field has progressed rapidly, especially for its use in the diagnosis and treatment of tumors, and a new frontier has been formed—tumor nanotechnology. Prof. Zhao Yuliang of the Institute of High Energy, Chinese Academy of Sciences pointed out: “Existing studies have shown that the inhibitory effect of low-dose metal fullerene nanoparticles on the growth of liver cancer and breast cancer is much better than the currently used anti-tumor drugs in clinical practice, and there are no toxic side effects. Utilizing or overcoming the new biological effects brought about by the interaction of carbon nanomaterials and life processes is a difficult problem to be solved in the future."

Combining the application space and development status of carbon nanomaterials, Wang Chunru pointed out: “Industrial production is the basis for the application research of carbon nanomaterials, and at present its industrial production problem has not yet been completely resolved.” He believes that for fullerene nanomaterials, Industrialization research should be strengthened, and efforts should be made to achieve low-cost, high-yield production; for carbon nanotubes, the exploration of high-purity, low defect preparation techniques should be strengthened; for graphene nanomaterials, large scales must be overcome. The technical bottleneck of the preparation.

Late development locks seven key points

According to the summary of the Institute of Metals of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the development of carbon nanomaterials should include five directions: the development of new carbon nanomaterials and their structural design, performance prediction, and controllable preparation science;

Establish characterization methods and techniques for the fine structure and physical properties of carbon nanomaterials; reveal the relationship between the structure and properties of carbon nanomaterials; explore the application of carbon nanomaterials in clean energy, nanoelectronics, aerospace, transportation, etc.; promote carbon nanomaterials Technological development and application of scale.

Wang Chunru added that attention should be paid to studying the mutual transformation between different types of carbon nanomaterials. For example, it has been found that graphite can be transformed into fullerenes, nanotubes, graphene, nanohorns, nano-onions, etc. under high-temperature helium atmosphere. Fullerenes can be converted into nanotubes at high temperatures, graphite, fullerenes, and nanometers. The tube can be converted into diamond under high temperature and high pressure conditions; diamond can form nanotubes under certain conditions; nanotubes convert to graphene under acidic conditions. He said: "The mutual transformation between these materials provides important information for further understanding and controllable preparation of carbon nanomaterials."

Professor Qiu Jieshan of Dalian University of Technology believes that the low-cost and controllable preparation of functional carbon nanomaterials is a challenging subject at home and abroad. He introduced a strategy for regulating the structure of carbon nanomaterials with specific structures and properties using cheap coal as raw materials. In fact, the basic idea of ​​using carbon as a carbon source to prepare carbon nanomaterials is to use process engineering techniques to construct functional carbon nanomaterials using aromatic basic structural units in coal. Exploration in this area is of great significance for the realization of low-cost preparation of carbon nanomaterials.