Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology: From synthesis to functional polymer nanocomposites

在几乎所有高科技设备发展的背后，都有关于功能材料和结构材料发展的巨大努力。如今，可以在纳米尺度（十亿分之一米）上操纵和构造物质，并排列原子和分子，从而赋予最终材料非凡的光谱特性。原子和分子可以组织成几种规则的结构，包括数组、晶格和具有不同形状和功能的物体。例如，纳米颗粒可以制成各种形状：球形、立方体、锥体、管状、片状、棒状、线状和其他形状。分子也可以排列成薄膜和单层薄膜，固体也可以制成校准良好的介孔和纳米孔结构。我们的长期目标是在不同的尺度（从纳米到宏观）组织物质，以赋予最终产品特定的期望属性。最近我们开发了一种制造碳纳米管、碳纳米弹簧、纳米螺线管和量子点的新工艺。我们在未来五年的目标是控制合成条件和制造这些纳米结构材料的工艺选择性，目的是制造用于制造燃料电池、光伏电池和压电材料的功能性聚合物纳米复合材料。这些应用程序目前正在我们的实验室开发。

Behind the development of almost any high-tech technological device, there is a great effort concerning the development of functional and structured materials. Nowadays it's possible to manipulate and structure matter at nanoscale-1-billionth of meter (nm)-and arrange atoms and molecules to impart the final material with an extraordinary spectrum of properties. Atoms and molecules can be organized in several regular structures that include arrays, lattices, and objects with different shapes and functionalities. For instance, nanoparticles can be made in various shapes: spherical, cubic, pyramidal, tubular, lamellar, rods, wires, and other shapes. Molecules can also be arranged in thin and monolayer films and solids can be made in well calibrated mesoporous and nanoporous structures. Our long-term objective is to organise matter at various scales (from nano to macro) to impart the final product with specific desired properties. Recently we have developed a new process for making carbon nanotubes, carbon nanosprings and nanosolenoids and also quantum dots. Our objective during the next five years is to control the synthesis conditions and the selectivity of the process for the fabrication these nanostructured materials with the aim of making functional polymer nanocomposites for the fabrication of fuel cells fuel, photovoltaic cells and piezoelectric materials. These applications are currently developed in our laboratory.