Nanostructured materials: synthesis, properties and applications

在更广泛的纳米结构材料(NSM)家族中，碳纳米管(卷成纳米级的石墨烯薄片)和纳米颗粒(颗粒大小在纳米范围内)是最具科学刺激性和技术前景的材料。碳纳米管(CNT)和纳米粒子(NPs)是竞争激烈的全球研究工作的核心，不仅不断揭示它们的非凡性质/惊人行为，而且还展示了它们在不同领域(从纳米电子学到纳米复合材料或药物输送纳米矢量)的突破性应用潜力。开发新的合成方法可以更好地控制这些碳纳米管/纳米粒子的纳米结构特征，实现它们的选择性纯化和组装的能力仍然是阻碍其全部潜力开发的具有挑战性的问题之一。这些对于了解碳纳米管/纳米颗粒的内在性质以便更好地了解其基本的纳米结构-性质关系也是必不可少的。

Carbon nanotubes (a graphene sheet rolled-up into a nanometer -a billionth of a meter- diameter tube) and nanoparticles (particles of which size is in the nanometer range) are among the most scientifically-exciting and technologically-promising materials in the wider family of Nanostructured materials (NSMs). Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and nanoparticles (NPs) are at the heart of the highly-competitive worldwide research effort that continues not only to reveal their extraordinary properties/astonishing behaviors but also to demonstrate their potential for breakthrough applications in various fields (ranging from nanoelectronics to nanocomposites or drug delivery nanovectors). The development of novel synthesis methods that will permit a better control of the nanostructural characteristics of these CNTs/NPs, the ability to achieve their selective purification and their assembly are among the challenging issues that still hinder the exploitation of their full potential. These are also essential to access the intrinsic properties of CNTs/NPs in order to achieve better understanding of their fundamental nanostructure-properties relationship.