Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Lab of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Chem Asian J. 2010 May 3;5(5):1030-8. doi: 10.1002/asia.200900557.
Owing to the hollow structure of carbon nanotubes, they could be filled with various kinds of molecules, providing opportunities for studying the properties of molecules confined in nanospace. On the one hand, the spatial confinement imparts novel and distinct properties to the encapsulated species from their counterparts in bulk. On the other hand, the properties of the carbon nanotubes are modified as a result of the interaction between the carbon nanotubes and the encapsulated molecules. In this Focus Review, we summarize the recent advances in this field, including structure, phase transition, and chemical transformation of the encapsulated molecules as well as tuning of carbon nanotubes' properties, with special emphasis on the relation between these properties and the size of the confined space.
由于碳纳米管的中空结构，它们可以填充各种分子，为研究受限纳米空间中分子的性质提供了机会。一方面，空间限制赋予了被包裹物种与体相相比新颖而独特的性质。另一方面，碳纳米管和被包裹分子之间的相互作用也会改变碳纳米管的性质。在这篇重点综述中，我们总结了这一领域的最新进展，包括被包裹分子的结构、相变和化学转变，以及碳纳米管性质的调谐，特别强调了这些性质与受限空间大小之间的关系。
