Platinum-based catalysts represent a state of the art in the electrocatalysis of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) from the point of view of their activity and durability in harnessing the chemical energy via direct electrochemical conversion. However, because platinum is both expensive and scarce, its widespread implementation in such clean energy applications is limited. Recent breakthroughs in...

Carbon nanotubes are quasi one-dimensional nanostructures with unique eletrical prroperties that make them prime candidates for molecular electronics, which is certainly a most promising direction in nanotechnology. Early theoretical works predicted that the electronic properties of "ideal" carbon nanotubes depend on their diameter and chirality. However, carbon nanotubes are probably not as pe...

This paper focuses on the synthesis and mechanism of carbon nanospheres (CNS) coated with fewand multi-layered graphene (FLG, MLG). The graphitic carbon encapsulates the core/shell structure of the Ni/NiO nanoparticles via the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. The application of the resulting CNS and hybrids of CNS-FLG and CNS-MLG as reinforcement nanofillers in a polypropylene (PP) matri...

Density-functional theory is used to investigate hydrogen physisorption on a graphene layer and on single wall carbon nanotubes. Both external and internal adsorption sites of 9, 0 and 10, 0 carbon nanotubes have been studied with the hydrogen molecular axis oriented parallel or perpendicular to the nanotube wall. A range of hydrogen molecule binding sites has been examined and it is found that...

Swift developments in nanotechnology have prominently encouraged innovative discoveries across many fields. Carbon-based nanomaterials have emerged as promising platforms for a broad range of applications due to their unique mechanical, electronic, and biological properties. Carbon nanostructures (CNSs) such as fullerene, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene and diamond-like carbon (DLC) have been...

Investigating the Electronic Properties of Carbon Nanostructures with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

We report theoretical analysis of the electronic flexoelectric effect associated with nanostructures of sp(2) carbon (curved graphene). Through the density functional theory calculations, we establish the universality of the linear dependence of flexoelectric atomic dipole moments on local curvature in various carbon networks (carbon nanotubes, fullerenes with high and low symmetry, and nanocon...

Octopus-like carbon nanofibers with leg diameters as small as 9 nm are reported, with a high yield over large areas, using a unique photo-thermal chemical vapour deposition system. The branched nature of these nanostructures leads to geometries ideal for increasing the surface area of contacts for many electronic and electrochemical devices. The manufacture of these structures involves a combin...

The lack of complete understanding of the substrate effects on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) growth poses a lot oftechnical challenges. Here, we report the direct growth of nanostructures such as the CNTs on stainless steel 304and brass substrates using thermal chemical vapor deposition (TCVD) process with C2H2 gas as carbon sourceand hydrogen as supporting gas mixed in Ar gas flow. We used an especi...

This study investigates the efficacy of two-dimensional (2D) carbon and inorganic nanostructures as reinforcing agents for cross-linked composites of the biodegradable and biocompatible polymer polypropylene fumarate (PPF) as a function of nanostructure concentration. PPF composites were reinforced using various 2D nanostructures: single- and multiwalled graphene oxide nanoribbons (SWGONRs, MWG...