CARBON NANOTUBES: PROPERTIES AND APPLICATIONS
Carbon nanotubes were discovered in 1991 as a minority byproduct of fullerene synthesis. Remarkable progress has been made in the ensuing years, including the discovery of two basic types of nanotubes (single-wall and multi-wall), great strides in synthesis and purification, elucidation of many fundamental physical properties, and important steps towards practical applications. Both the underlying science and technological potential of SWNT can profitably be studied at the scale of individual tubes and on macroscopic assemblies such as fibers. Experiments on single tubes directly reveal many of the predicted quantum confinement and mechanical properties. Semiconductor nanowires have many features in common with nanotubes, and many of the same fundamental and practical issues are in play – quantum confinement and its effect on properties; possible device structures and circuit architectures; thermal management; optimal synthesis, defect morphology and control, etc. In 2000 we began a small effort in this direction, conducted entirely by undergraduates with minimal consumables support from this grant. With DOE-BES approval, this grew into a project in parallel with the carbon nanotube work, in which we studied of inorganic semiconductor nanowire growth, characterization and novel strategies for electronic and electromechanical device fabrication. From the beginnings of research on carbon nanotubes, one of the major applications envisioned was hydrogen storage for fuel-cell powered cars and trucks. Subsequent theoretical models gave mixed results, the most pessimistic indicating that the fundamental H2-SWNT interaction was similar to flat graphite (physisorption) with only modest binding energies implying cryogenic operation at best. New material families with encouraging measured properties have emerged, and materials modeling has gained enormously in predictive power, sophistication, and the ability to treat a realistically representative number of atoms. One of the new materials, highly porous carbide-derived carbons (CDC), is the subject of an add-on to this grant awarded to myself and Taner Yildirim (NIST). Results from the add-on led eventually to a new 3-year award DE-FG02-08ER46522 “From Fundamental Understanding to Predicting New Nanomaterials for High Capacity Hydrogen Storage”, $1000K, (05/31/2008 - 05/01/2011) with Taner Yildirim and myself as co-PI’s.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-98ER45701
- OSTI ID:
- 961519
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ER/45701- Final Report; TRN: US201112%%122
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
08 HYDROGEN
25 ENERGY STORAGE
30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
ATOMS
CAPACITY
CARBON
CONFINEMENT
CRYOGENICS
DEFECTS
FABRICATION
FIBERS
FULLERENES
GRAPHITE
HYDROGEN
HYDROGEN STORAGE
MANAGEMENT
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
MORPHOLOGY
NANOTUBES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PURIFICATION
STORAGE
SYNTHESIS
Single-walled carbon nanotubes
Carbon nanotubes
semiconductor nanowires
focussed-ion-beam processing
hydrogen storage
highly porous carbide-derived carbons
Charge transfer
Fermi level shift
metal-ethylene complexes
gas sorption