Carbon Nanostructures as Promising Future Materials II

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "2D and Carbon Nanomaterials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2024 | Viewed by 10103

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“Cristofor Simionescu” Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Environment Protection, “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University, Iasi, Romania
Interests: polysaccharide modification; bioactive polymers; biomaterials; hydrogels; interpenetrated networks; micro- and nanoparticles (spheres and capsules); hybrid and functionalized nanoparticles for drug targeting; drug delivery; polymer–drug conjugates
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to submit an article to our Special Issue entitled “Carbon Nanostructures as Promising Future Materials”. Carbon is an element well-known for its allotropic states, which are determined by various structures found in diamond, graphite, graphene, etc., that have various uses. The last four decades have marked a relaunch of carbon-based materials, beginning with the discovery of new nanostructures such as fullerenes (1985, with Nobel Prize for Robert Curl, Harold Kroto, and Richard Smalley in 1996), carbon nanotubes (1991), graphenes (Nobel Prize for Andre Geim in 2004 and Konstantin Novoselov in 2010), and carbon dots. The preparation of carbon nanostructures can be achieved through several strategies, two of which stand out as the most important: pyrolysis of organic precursors under an inert atmosphere, which is applicable to large-scale production but offers limited control over the carbon nanostructure; and physical/chemical vapor deposition techniques, which offer atomic-scale precision in controlling the nanostructure but require complex equipment. Carbon nanostructures have found a wide range of applications, such as in electron transport and nanoscale electronics, advanced fillers, adsorbents, active materials in energy accumulating systems (batteries), hydrogen storage systems, supercapacitors, additives for polymers, ceramics, metals and metal alloys, glasses, textiles and composite materials, filtering media, catalysts or supports for catalysts, delivery of moisture and essential elements for plants growth, theranostic platform (drug immobilization, transport, and delivery, medical imaging, etc.)

This Special Issue aims to present the latest research regarding the preparation, characterization, and application of carbon nanostructures, and intends to serve as a platform for debating and disseminating new results in this very versatile and practical research domain.

For this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) carbon nanostructures and nanocomposites, energy storage, medical applications, and carbon dots.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Marcel Popa
Prof. Dr. Leonard Ionut Atanase
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nanomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • carbon nanostructures
  • graphene
  • fullerene
  • nanotube
  • carbon dots
  • carbon nanocomposites
  • support for catalysts
  • medical applications
  • energy storage
  • fuel storage (including hydrogen)

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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0 pages, 4537 KiB  
Article
Photoluminescence of Argan-Waste-Derived Carbon Nanodots Embedded in Polymer Matrices
by Corneliu S. Stan, Noumane Elouakassi, Cristina Albu, Conchi O. Ania, Adina Coroaba, Laura E. Ursu, Marcel Popa, Hamid Kaddami and Abdemaji Almaggoussi
Nanomaterials 2024, 14(1), 83; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano14010083 - 27 Dec 2023
Viewed by 899
Abstract
In this work, photoluminescent (PL) carbon nano dots (CNDs) prepared from argan waste were embedded in highly optical transparent poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile) (PSA) and cyclo-olefin copolymer (COC) matrices, which were further processed into thin films. In the first step, the luminescent CNDs were prepared through [...] Read more.
In this work, photoluminescent (PL) carbon nano dots (CNDs) prepared from argan waste were embedded in highly optical transparent poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile) (PSA) and cyclo-olefin copolymer (COC) matrices, which were further processed into thin films. In the first step, the luminescent CNDs were prepared through thermal processing of fine-groundargan waste, followed, in the second step, by direct dispersion in the polymer solutions, obtained by solving PSA and COC in selected solvents. These two polymer matrices were selected due to their high optical transparency, resilience to various environmental factors, and ability to be processed as quality thin films. The structural configuration of the CNDs was investigated through EDX, XPS, and FTIR, while DLS, HR-SEM, and STEM were used for their morphology investigation. The luminescence of the prepared CNDs and resulted polymer nanocomposites was thoroughly investigated through steady-state, absolute PLQY, and lifetime fluorescence. The quality of the resulted CND–polymer nanocomposite thin films was evaluated through AFM. The prepared highly luminescent thin films with a PL conversion efficiency of 30% are intended to be applied as outer photonic conversion layers on solar PV cells for increasing their conversion efficiency through valorization of the UV component of the solar radiation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Carbon Nanostructures as Promising Future Materials II)
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17 pages, 1311 KiB  
Article
Density Functional Theory for Buckyballs within Symmetrized Icosahedral Basis
by Chung-Yuan Ren, Raj Kumar Paudel and Yia-Chung Chang
Nanomaterials 2023, 13(13), 1912; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13131912 - 23 Jun 2023
Viewed by 1404
Abstract
We have developed a highly efficient computation method based on density functional theory (DFT) within a set of fully symmetrized basis functions for the C60 buckyball, which possesses the icosahedral (Ih) point-group symmetry with 120 symmetry operations. We demonstrate [...] Read more.
We have developed a highly efficient computation method based on density functional theory (DFT) within a set of fully symmetrized basis functions for the C60 buckyball, which possesses the icosahedral (Ih) point-group symmetry with 120 symmetry operations. We demonstrate that our approach is much more efficient than the conventional approach based on three-dimensional plane waves. When applied to the calculation of optical transitions, our method is more than one order of magnitude faster than the existing DFT package with a conventional plane-wave basis. This makes it very convenient for modeling optical and transport properties of quantum devices related to buckyball crystals. The method introduced here can be easily extended to other fullerene-like materials. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Carbon Nanostructures as Promising Future Materials II)
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17 pages, 5327 KiB  
Article
Nanoporous Hollow Carbon Spheres Derived from Fullerene Assembly as Electrode Materials for High-Performance Supercapacitors
by Lok Kumar Shrestha, Zexuan Wei, Gokulnath Subramaniam, Rekha Goswami Shrestha, Ravi Singh, Marappan Sathish, Renzhi Ma, Jonathan P. Hill, Junji Nakamura and Katsuhiko Ariga
Nanomaterials 2023, 13(5), 946; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13050946 - 05 Mar 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3800
Abstract
The energy storage performances of supercapacitors are expected to be enhanced by the use of nanostructured hierarchically micro/mesoporous hollow carbon materials based on their ultra-high specific surface areas and rapid diffusion of electrolyte ions through the interconnected channels of their mesoporous structures. In [...] Read more.
The energy storage performances of supercapacitors are expected to be enhanced by the use of nanostructured hierarchically micro/mesoporous hollow carbon materials based on their ultra-high specific surface areas and rapid diffusion of electrolyte ions through the interconnected channels of their mesoporous structures. In this work, we report the electrochemical supercapacitance properties of hollow carbon spheres prepared by high-temperature carbonization of self-assembled fullerene-ethylenediamine hollow spheres (FE-HS). FE-HS, having an average external diameter of 290 nm, an internal diameter of 65 nm, and a wall thickness of 225 nm, were prepared by using the dynamic liquid-liquid interfacial precipitation (DLLIP) method at ambient conditions of temperature and pressure. High temperature carbonization (at 700, 900, and 1100 °C) of the FE-HS yielded nanoporous (micro/mesoporous) hollow carbon spheres with large surface areas (612 to 1616 m2 g−1) and large pore volumes (0.925 to 1.346 cm3 g−1) dependent on the temperature applied. The sample obtained by carbonization of FE-HS at 900 °C (FE-HS_900) displayed optimum surface area and exhibited remarkable electrochemical electrical double-layer capacitance properties in aq. 1 M sulfuric acid due to its well-developed porosity, interconnected pore structure, and large surface area. For a three-electrode cell setup, a specific capacitance of 293 F g−1 at a 1 A g−1 current density, which is approximately 4 times greater than the specific capacitance of the starting material, FE-HS. The symmetric supercapacitor cell was assembled using FE-HS_900 and attained 164 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 with sustained 50% capacitance at 10 A g−1 accompanied by 96% cycle life and 98% coulombic efficiency after 10,000 consecutive charge/discharge cycles. The results demonstrate the excellent potential of these fullerene assemblies in the fabrication of nanoporous carbon materials with the extensive surface areas required for high-performance energy storage supercapacitor applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Carbon Nanostructures as Promising Future Materials II)
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11 pages, 2902 KiB  
Communication
Reversible Hydrogen Storage Media by g-CN Monolayer Decorated with NLi4: A First-Principles Study
by Xihao Chen, Wenjie Hou, Fuqiang Zhai, Jiang Cheng, Shuang Yuan, Yihan Li, Ning Wang, Liang Zhang and Jie Ren
Nanomaterials 2023, 13(4), 647; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13040647 - 07 Feb 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1378
Abstract
A two-dimensional graphene-like carbon nitride (g-CN) monolayer decorated with the superatomic cluster NLi4 was studied for reversible hydrogen storage by first-principles calculations. Molecular dynamics simulations show that the g-CN monolayer has good thermal stability at room temperature. The NLi4 is firmly [...] Read more.
A two-dimensional graphene-like carbon nitride (g-CN) monolayer decorated with the superatomic cluster NLi4 was studied for reversible hydrogen storage by first-principles calculations. Molecular dynamics simulations show that the g-CN monolayer has good thermal stability at room temperature. The NLi4 is firmly anchored on the g-CN monolayer with a binding energy of −6.35 eV. Electronic charges are transferred from the Li atoms of NLi4 to the g-CN monolayer, mainly due to the hybridization of Li(2s), C(2p), and N(2p) orbitals. Consequently, a spatial local electrostatic field is formed around NLi4, leading to polarization of the adsorbed hydrogen molecules and further enhancing the electrostatic interactions between the Li atoms and hydrogen. Each NLi4 can adsorb nine hydrogen molecules with average adsorption energies between −0.152 eV/H2 and −0.237 eV/H2. This range is within the reversible hydrogen storage energy window. Moreover, the highest achieved gravimetric capacity is up to 9.2 wt%, which is superior to the 5.5 wt% target set by the U.S. Department of Energy. This study shows that g-CN monolayers decorated with NLi4 are a good candidate for reversible hydrogen storage. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Carbon Nanostructures as Promising Future Materials II)
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Review

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25 pages, 18302 KiB  
Review
Cytotoxicity of Carbon Nanotubes, Graphene, Fullerenes, and Dots
by Marianna V. Kharlamova and Christian Kramberger
Nanomaterials 2023, 13(9), 1458; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13091458 - 25 Apr 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1750
Abstract
The cytotoxicity of carbon nanomaterials is a very important issue for microorganisms, animals, and humans. Here, we discuss the issues of cytotoxicity of carbon nanomaterials, carbon nanotubes, graphene, fullerene, and dots. Cytotoxicity issues, such as cell viability and drug release, are considered. The [...] Read more.
The cytotoxicity of carbon nanomaterials is a very important issue for microorganisms, animals, and humans. Here, we discuss the issues of cytotoxicity of carbon nanomaterials, carbon nanotubes, graphene, fullerene, and dots. Cytotoxicity issues, such as cell viability and drug release, are considered. The main part of the review is dedicated to important cell viability issues. They are presented for A549 human melanoma, E. coli, osteosarcoma, U2-OS, SAOS-2, MG63, U87, and U118 cell lines. Then, important drug release issues are discussed. Bioimaging results are shown here to illustrate the use of carbon derivatives as markers in any type of imaging used in vivo/in vitro. Finally, perspectives of the field are presented. The important issue is single-cell viability. It can allow a correlation of the functionality of organelles of single cells with the development of cancer. Such organelles are mitochondria, nuclei, vacuoles, and reticulum. It allows for finding biochemical evidence of cancer prevention in single cells. The development of investigation methods for single-cell level detection of viability stimulates the cytotoxicity investigative field. The development of single-cell microscopy is needed to improve the resolution and accuracy of investigations. The importance of cytotoxicity is drug release. It is important to control the amount of drug that is released. This is performed with pH, temperature, and electric stimulation. Further development of drug loading and bioimaging is important to decrease the cytotoxicity of carbon nanomaterials. We hope that this review is useful for researchers from all disciplines across the world. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Carbon Nanostructures as Promising Future Materials II)
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