Synthesis and Applications of Inorganic Nanostructures

Huaqiang Cao

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9783527340279
• eBook ISBN: 9783527698172
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Inorganic Chemistry

Authored by a leading figure in the field, this book systematically describes all the fundamental aspects and applications of inorganic nanostructures from zero to three dimensions. It not only discusses various synthesis technologies, but also covers the physical properties of inorganic nanostructures, such as optical, electric and magnetic properties, and practical applications such as energy storage (including Li-ion and Ni-MH batteries and supercapacitors), superhydrophobic and bio-applications, etc. The focus throughout is on the synthesis-structure-application relationships, including the growth mechanisms for the nanostrucutres.
Concise yet comprehensive, this is indispensable reading for chemists and materials scientists.

Chapter 1
Introduction

On 29 December 1959, the great physicist Richard P. Feynman, one of the Laureates for the Nobel Prize in Physics 1965 “for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles”, gave a far-reaching prophetic lecture entitled “There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom” at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He said “What I have demonstrated is that there is room – that you can decrease the size of things in a practical way. I now want to show that there is plenty of room. I will not now discuss how we are going to do it, but only what is possible in principle – in other words, what is possible according to the laws of physics. I am not inventing anti-gravity, which is possible someday only if the laws are not what we think. I am telling you what could be done if the laws are what we think; we are not doing it simply because we haven't yet gotten around to it.” [1]. Feynman said that “The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom”. The past few decades have witnessed many inventions and discoveries in the preparation of nanoscale materials to authenticate his visionary prediction, and we can make nanoscale machine in the manner of arranging atoms one by one, and carry out chemical synthesis by mechanical manipulation.

Nanotechnology is the term used to cover the design, preparation, and applications of nanostructured systems. Nanotechnology also includes fundamental the understanding of physical properties and phenomena of nanostructures. The typical dimension for nanostructures spans from subnanometer to several hundred nanometers [2]. One nanomater (nm, one-billionth of meter, 10⁻⁹ m), is approximately the length equivalent to 10 hydrogen, or 5 silicon, or 3½ gold atoms aligned in a line. By convention, nanotechnology is taken as the structures at least one dimension in the range 1–100 nm following the definition used by the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) in the US [3].

Nanotechnology has been becoming an important research fields, representing an assemblage of many sciences and technologies at the nanometer scale, which encompasses the synthesis and application of nanostructured systems with sizes ranging from individual atoms or molecules to submicron dimension, as well as the assembling the resulting nanostructures into larger systems [4]. The emergence of nanotechnology as a unique and powerful interdisciplinary research activity with significant societal impact has affected almost all areas of science and technology. It has resulted in distinguished materials with novel and/or significantly improved physical properties (such as, optical, electrical, magnetic properties, etc.); chemical, mechanical, biological properties compared to those of their bulk analogues. The properties of nanostructured materials are quite different from those at a large scale. Nanotechnology today is a creative fusing of bottom-up chemistry approach and top-down engineering approach. We are currently witnessing an eruption of novel strategies for making and manipulating, visualizing and interrogating nanostructured materials.

In 2000, United States federal government issued the NNI which is a program for the science, engineering, and technology research and development for nanoscale projects. Whereafter, the NNI initiated a nanotechnology windstorm around the world [3]. The cumulative NNI investment since fiscal year 2001, including the 2015 request, totals almost $21 billion. Most challenging in nanotechnology will be those areas that relate to nanofabrication, in particular the development of viable fabrication technologies which will lead to cost-effective nanomanufacturing processes [4].

In order to understand nanotechnology, we need to first understand some quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanism assumes importance as material size is diminished. This is especially true in nanoscience.

1.1 Wave-Particle Duality

Before the beginning of the twentieth century, there was a disagreement about the true nature of light, with the followers of Isaac Newton supporting a corpuscular theory, whereas the followers of Christiaan Huygens approved light of a wave motion. Thomas Young performed a double-slit experiment in 1801, when he showed that interference patterns could be produced when light was passed through two closely spaced slits [5]. The modern double-slit experiment demonstrates that light and matter can display characteristics of both classically defined a wave and a particle. The possession of both wave and particle properties is known as wave-particle duality, which is at the heart of quantum mechanics. The same is true of atoms, molecules, and subatomic particles such as electrons, photons, and neutrons. The wave-particle duality of matter means that an electron is essential neither a wave nor a particle but its motion can be quantified using the mathematical equations appropriate to waves and particles [6]. This phenomenon is thus far absolutely impossible to explain by using any classical manner. And the wave-particle duality is regarded as the best explanation we have thus far.

The double-slit experiment is one of the better ways to observe the quantum behavior of electrons in action. Based on the double-slit experiment, we can say about the electrons (the same being true of photons): they arrive one at a time, like particles, and their probability of arrival is subject to interference, like waves [7]. Detailed discussion of double-slit experiments can be found in the quantum mechanics book by Rae [8].

In 1924, Louis de Broglie postulated that matter exhibited a dual nature and proposed that the wavelength of a particular obje...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Synthesis, Characterization, and Applications of Zero-Dimensional (0D) Nanostructures
• Chapter 3: Synthesis, Characterization, and Application of One-Dimensional (1D) Nanostructures
• Chapter 4: Synthesis, Characterization, and Applications of Two-Dimensional (2D) Graphene-Related Nanostructures
• Chapter 5: Synthesis, Characterization, and Applications of Three-Dimensional (3D) Nanostructures
• Chapter 6: Summary
• Index
• End User License Agreement