Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology: From synthesis to functional polymer nanocomposites

在几乎任何高科技技术设备的开发背后，都有关于功能和结构材料开发的巨大努力。如今，可以在纳米级（10亿分之一米（nm））上操纵和构造物质，并排列原子和分子，使最终材料具有非凡的特性。原子和分子可以组织成几种规则的结构，包括阵列，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、金字塔形、管状、层状、棒状、线状和其他形状。分子也可以排列在薄膜和单层膜中，固体可以制成校准良好的中孔和纳米多孔结构。我们的长期目标是在各种尺度（从纳米到宏观）组织物质，以赋予最终产品特定的所需特性。最近，我们已经开发出一种新的方法来制造碳纳米管，碳纳米弹簧和纳米管以及量子点。我们在未来五年的目标是控制合成条件和选择性的过程中制造这些纳米结构材料的目的是使功能聚合物纳米复合材料的燃料电池燃料，光伏电池和压电材料的制造。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.