Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
ACS Nano. 2009 May 26;3(5):1274-8. doi: 10.1021/nn9001903.
The synthesis of carbon nanostructures, with interesting morphologies, has created a revolution in nanotechnology; carbon nanotube is a case in point, but other nanoscale morphologies of graphitic carbon could provide compelling uses. In particular short structures, including very short nanotubes, have proven impossible to be grown by existing techniques due to the difficulty in controlling and terminating growth during initial stages. Here we present architectures engineered from graphitic carbon, having up to 10(5) times smaller length/diameter (L/D) ratios compared to conventional nanotubes, revealing unique morphologies of nanocups, nanorings, and large area connected nanocup arrays. Such highly engineered hollow nanostructures were fabricated using precisely controlled short nanopores inside anodic aluminum oxide templates. The nanocups were effectively used to hold and contain other nanomaterials, for example, metal nanoparticles, leading to the formation of multicomponent hybrid nanostructures with unusual morphologies. The results reported here open up possibilities to integrate new morphologies of graphitic carbon in nanotechnology applications.
碳纳米结构的合成，具有有趣的形态，在纳米技术领域引发了一场革命；碳纳米管就是一个典型的例子，但其他石墨状碳的纳米级形态也可能提供引人注目的用途。特别是短结构，包括非常短的纳米管，由于在初始阶段难以控制和终止生长，已经证明无法用现有的技术来生长。在这里，我们展示了由石墨状碳工程化的架构，与传统的纳米管相比，其长度/直径（L/D）比高达 10^5 倍，揭示了纳米杯、纳米环和大面积连接纳米杯阵列的独特形态。这种高度工程化的中空纳米结构是使用阳极氧化铝模板内精确控制的短纳米孔制造的。纳米杯有效地用于容纳和包含其他纳米材料，例如金属纳米粒子，导致具有异常形态的多组分混合纳米结构的形成。这里报道的结果为在纳米技术应用中集成新的石墨状碳形态开辟了可能性。
