CARBON NANOMATERIALS

Graphenes,Carbon Nanotubes & Fullerenes

Submitted By Sreeraj Varma SC11B050 BATCH II

Fullerene
A fullerene is any molecule composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid or tube. Spherical fullerenes are also called buckyballs, and they resemble the balls used in association football. Cylindrical ones are called carbon nanotubes or buckytubes. Fullerenes are similar in structure to graphite, which is composed of stacked graphene sheets of linked hexagonal rings; but they may also contain pentagonal (or sometimes heptagonal) rings. The different types of fullerenes are buckyball clusters, nanotubes, megatubes, polymers, nano onions, fullerene rings, linked ball-and-chain dimers etc. Properties: Chemical Properties:Fullerenes are stable but not completely unreactive due their angle strain. Also they can trap other compouns to form inclusion compounds called endohedral fullerenes, an example of which is Tb3N in C-84.

C-60 in solution

Solubility: Fullerenes are sparingly soluble in many solvents. Common solvents for the fullerenes include aromatics, such as toluene, and others like carbon disulfide. Applications: Medical Applications: In April 2003, fullerenes were under study for potential medicinal use: binding specific antibiotics to the structure to target resistant bacteria and even target certain cancer cells such as melanoma.Fullerenes can also be used light actuated anti microbial agents. Wide Range of Conductivity:Fullerenes can be used to make insulators and superconductors.K2C-60 is an insulators while K3C-60 and Rb3 C-60 are superconductors. Catalyst:They are very good catalysts for hydrocarbon upgradation ie converting methane and other lighter hydrocarbons into heavy ones. Pharmaceuticals: They are highly efficient Proteas inhibitors as they are normally highly hydrophobic and good antioxidants. Researches are ongoing to produce superstrong materials and nanowires like those produced from carbon Nanotubes. They are also being experimented for uses in making superstrong buckyfilms for producing sharper images in scanning tunneling microscopes.

Carbon Nanotubes
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are allotropes of carbon with a cylindrical nanostructure. Nanotubes are members of the fullerene structural family, which also includes the spherical buckyballs, and Carbon Nanotubes aligned perfectly to make Bearings the ends of a nanotube may be capped with a hemisphere of the buckyball structure. Their name is derived from their long, hollow structure with the walls formed by oneatom-thick sheets of carbon, called graphene. These sheets are rolled at specific and discrete ("chiral") angles, and the combination of the rolling angle and radius decides the nanotube properties; for example, whether the individual nanotube shell is a metal or semiconductor. Structure: There are different type of carbon nanotube structure is synthesised. Some of them are as follows: Single walled, Multi walled, Torus, Nanobud, Peapod, Cup sacked carbon Nanotubes Properties: Strength: Carbon nanotubes are the strongest and stiffest materials yet discovered in terms of tensile strength and elastic modulus respectively. Since carbon nanotubes have a low density for a solid of 1.3 to 1.4 g/cm3, its specific strength of up to 48,000 kNmkg1 is the best of known materials, compared to high-carbon steel's 154 kNmkg1. Hardness: Standard single-walled carbon nanotubes can withstand a pressure up to 24GPa without deformation while new technologies are being tested to make new tubes like superhard phase Nanotubes

Kinetic properties: Since multi-walled nanotubes are multiple concentric nanotubes precisely nested within one another they exhibit the ability to slide without friction.This property can be veryu useful in creating advanced bearings Thermal conduction: They are very good conductors along the axis of the tube but perpendicular to the tube they are very good insulators. Also they are having good temperature stability in vuccum(2800C) but in air they only withstand upto 750C due to oxidation. Also they are being researched for application in stealth technology due their wave absorption properties. Applications: Bearings and Springs: As explained earlier they can be used in these due to their concentric axis. Velcro:The common loop-and-hook configuration of Velcro could be mimicked at the atomic level by using Nanotubes to produce ultra high temperature resistant and strong velcros Composites:Though carbon fibres are used in manufacturing composites carbon Nanotubes have the distict advantages of strength size and temperature resistances that make them ideal for such materials. Lower size means better interaction between fibre and matrix in the composite. Batteries:Presently graphite is used to hold lithium ions in batteries but CNTs have the distinct advantage of being able to hold them both inside and outside their surface thus significantly increasing their storage capacity.

They are further being tested for nanoscale wiring in ICs build on an experimental scale,

Graphene
Graphene is an allotrope of carbon. Its structure is one-atomthick planar sheets of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice.It is the basic building material of many materials such as graphite, charcoal, nanotube
Graphene

and fullerenes. Properties: Electrical Property:They behave as zero gap semiconductors. Also it has remarkably high electrical mobility. Optical Properties: Graphene has a unusually large absorbence compared to other normal molecules. This is a consequence of the unusual low-energy electronic structure of monolayer An image showing absorbence of unilayer graphene. Experimentally it has also been graphene confirmed that this absorption becomes saturated above a particular threshold value of optical intensity.This phenomenon is called saturable absorption. Thermal Properties: At near room temperature Graphene has a very high thermal conductivity((4.840.44) 103 to (5.300.48) 103 Wm-1K-1) which is higher than Nanotubes or diamond.The composition of C-12 and

C-13 also had a significant effect in the thermal conductivity with pure ones having a higher conductivity. Mechanical Properties: Like Carbon Nanotubes graphene has a very high breaking strength and modulus. But extracting graphene from graphite were it occurs naturally is right now not a viable proposition as it is very costly And only laboratory methods have been developed.

A Graphene Paper

Applications: Single Molecule Detection Systems:Graphene makes an excellent sensor due to its single layered structure which exposes the whole of it to sorroundings.But since it cant adsorb any molecule on its surface some polymer coatings need to be provided. Graphene transistors: Due to its high electronic quality, graphene can also be used to construct ballistic transistors. Graphene exhibits a pronounced response to perpendicular external electric fields, allowing one to build FETs. But since the on/off ratio is very poor scientists are experimenting with methods to chemically increase its performance. These reversible switches could potentially be applied to nonvolatile memories. Integrated Circuits: Graphene has the ideal properties to be an excellent component of integrated circuits. Graphene has a high carrier mobility, as well as low noise, allowing it to be used as the channel in a field-effect transistor. The issue is that single sheets of graphene are hard to produce, and even harder to make on top of an appropriate substrate.

Transparent conducting electrodes: Graphene's high electrical conductivity and high optical transparency make it a candidate for transparent conducting electrodes, required for such applications as touchscreens, liquid crystal displays, organic photovoltaic cells, and organic light-emitting diodes. In particular, graphene's mechanical strength and flexibility are advantageous compared to indium tin oxide, which is brittle, and graphene films may be deposited from solution over large areas.