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Focus on Advanced Nanomaterials

2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 11; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1088/1468-6996/11/5/050201

1878-5514

Takaho Tanaka, Konstantin Iakoubovskii,

Graphene and Nanomaterials Applications

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 was awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov 'for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene'. This award acknowledged the growing importance of graphene, as well as of nanomaterials and surface phenomena at the nanoscale in general. Graphene, carbon nanotubes and many other nanostructures have already demonstrated their remarkable physical properties and a wealth of quantum phenomena. However, much work has to be done to apply these properties in practical devices and technological processes. This focus issue overviews some recent advances in this direction. It includes a foreword and eight articles on nanomaterials investigation carried out at International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science. The foreword is written by Heinrich Rohrer, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986 for the design of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM)?one of the most successful tools in the characterization and manipulation of various nanomaterials, including graphene. Professor Rohrer presents his perspectives on the trends in the past, present and future developments of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Graphene and carbon nanomaterials dominate the topics of this focus issue. Rao et al review the synthesis and characterization of the surface, magnetic and electrical properties of carbon structures containing one to several graphene layers. Moriyama et al present their recent results on the fabrication of electrical quantum-dot devices in a graphene-based two-dimensional system. By applying a nanofabrication process to graphene flakes, they fabricated a device comprising two lateral quantum dots coupled in series. Wakabayashi et al review the theoretical treatment of graphene nanoribbons and present their own recent achievements in this area. Graphene is closely related to carbon nanotubes, and their applications largely rely on the possibility of controllable functionalization. Gautam et al review an elegant method of such functionalization, namely the encapsulation of inorganic elements and compounds into carbon nanotubes. Functionalization of metal surfaces is another important topic of this focus issue. Nagao et al overview the fundamental properties of plasmons in materials with various dimensionalities. In particular, they consider antenna resonances of plasmon polariton in some widely used nanometer-scale structures and atomic-scale wires, along with their applications. Komeda et al present their molecule-resolved STM analysis of bonding metal-free phthalocyanine to gold surfaces. Such organic?inorganic interfaces have a variety of potential applications to catalysis and sensors. Nagasaki describes another organic nanotechnology related topic, namely engineering of poly(ethylene glycol) tethered chain surfaces for high-performance bionanoparticles. Finally, Fabbri et al review the role of interfaces in ionic conductivity in oxide hetero-structures, aimed at improving the design of micro-ionic devices. We hope that this focus issue will provide a valuable update on some topics in current nanomaterials research.