MaterialsTodayVolume18,Number9November2015 UNCOVERED
Uncovered
A
fiber-based
bunch
of
flowers
Carbon
fibers
in
an
aluminium
sheet
Emanuela
Tamburri,
Patrizio
Barbini,
Silvia
Orlanducci
and
Maria
Letizia
Terranova
Dip.todiScienze&TecnologieChimiche–MinimaLab,Universita` di Roma‘‘TorVergata’’,ViaDellaRicercaScientifica,00133Rome,Italy emanuela.tamburri@uniroma2.it
Ifone examines the rich familyof carbon materials, having
grownoverthelasttwodecadeswiththeexplosionofinterestin nanoscalecarbons,itisevidentthatsomemembersofthefamily
havereached maturity. Bywhich wemean, we knowall about
preparation, the properties and have explored all the practical applicationsforthem.Butisthisreallytrue?
There are some classes of carbon materials, that have been
successfully used for decades in many technological fields,
whicharenolongerstimulatingstrongscientificinterestorraising
expectations for future development. This is the case of two
interestingclassesofCmaterials;namelyglassycarbonandcarbon fibers,thathaveanedgeoverothermaterialsforavarietyofuses, butarepresentlynotveryattractivetoresearchers.
Nowadays the fashion of the ‘‘nano’’ is taking much of the
attentionofthescientificcommunityandabsorbingmostofthe activitiesofresearchgroupsactiveinthefieldsofmaterialsscience andtechnology.Inourlabsthemainresearchworkisalsofocused onnanomaterials,inparticularontheburgeoningclassofcarbon
nanomaterials, suchas nanotubes,onions,nanographites,
den-drimersandnanodiamonds.Greatattentionispaidtothe devel-opmentofsynthesistechniquesfortheproductionofnanocarbon systems with controlled chemicalstate and architecture of the deposits.ThepreparationofCnanostructurescoupledwith
poly-mers andnanometals alsorepresentsafundamentaltaskofour
research.
Inparticular,hybridmaterialsconstitutedbysp2-sp3CandSi
nanostructures have been successfully grown using chemical
vapor deposition techniques [1,2]. Byadopting chemicaland/
or electrochemical synthetic approaches, inorganic-organic
nanocompositeshavebeensynthesizedwheretheguest
nano-carboninclusionsnotonlybehaveasfillersabletoimprovethe functionalpropertiesofthebasematerial,butacttoward modi-fyingthestructuralorganizationofthehostpolymermatrix[3–
5].Moreover,themodificationofcarbonnanotubesand
nano-diamonds with metal nanoparticles (Ni, Au) has led to the
developmentofcomplexsystemsforadvanced applicationsin
fieldsrangingfromelectronics,sensing,opticsandbiomedicine
[6–10].
However, despite all the stimulating results providedby the innovativeCnanomaterials,we areawareofthefactthatsome ‘‘old’’componentsofthecarbonfamily,suchasthecitedglassy carbonandcarbonfibers,stillhavealottogive.Inthiscontextwe
thought it worthwhile to carry out, in parallel with research
activitiesona varietyofexcitingnanocarbons,studiesonmore traditionalcarbonmaterials.
Aimingtoexplorenewopportunitiesthatcouldbeofferedby carbonfibers,wearesubmittingcommercialsamplestoaseriesof chemicalandphysicaltreatments.Theobjectivesaretomodifythe
1369-7021/ß2015TheAuthors.PublishedbyElsevierLtd.ThisisanopenaccessarticleundertheCCBY-NC-NDlicense(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
externalskinofthefibers,toenhancetheirsurface/volumeratio, tomodifytheirstructure,tointroducefunctionalizations,tocoat thefibersbypolymersormetallayers,toimprovetheirelectrode activity,tomodulatethemechanicalandelectricalproperties,to enhancethesensingactivity,andmore.
Thecoverimageofthisissuereferspreciselytoastudycarried outintheframeofthisresearchanddepictsabunchofCfibers
wrapped inside a thin Al sheet. This strange but beautiful
arrangement hasbeenobtainedduringanattempttocompact
a sampleoftreated fibersforelectron microscopyobservation. Atthebottom,thefibersappearconnectedinakindofropedue totheclampingbytheAlsheet,but,outfromthegraspofthe metal,theindividualfibersbranchout.Asonecansee,the fan-likearrangementofthefibersisgentlysupportedbythewavyAl
sheet, that looks like the wrapping paper around a bunch of
flowers. This arrangement constitutes one of the stagesof an
innovative approach we are currently investigating for the
fabricationofCfiber-basedsystemsasreliablebinder-free elec-trodesfor hybridsupercapacitors.Suchdevicesareatthe
fore-front in the development of novel energystorage/conversion
systems, and webelieve thatC fibers-basedmaterials can still
playakeyroleintheproductionofenergystoragedeviceswith aneasymanipulation andlong-term stability.
Furtherreading
[1]M.L.Terranova,etal. Chem.Mater.17(12)(2005)3214–3220.
[2]S.Orlanducci,etal. Cryst.GrowthDes.12(9)(2012)4473–4478.
[3]D.Sordi,etal. Carbon49(7)(2011)2227–2234.
[4]E.Tamburri,etal. Polymer53(19)(2012)4045–4053.
[5]E.Tamburri,etal. J.Mater.Chem.C2(19)(2014)3703–3716.
[6]E.Tamburri,etal. J.Nanopart.Res.11(6)(2009)1311–1319.
[7]S.Orlanducci,etal. J.Nanosci.Nanotechnol.11(6)(2011)4882–4887.
[8]S.Orlanducci,etal. Chem.Phys.Lett.549(2012)51–57.
[9]A.Gismondi,etal. Biomaterials38(2015)22–35.
[10]E.Tamburri,etal. Electrochim.Acta157(2015)115–124.
UNCOVERED MaterialsTodayVolume18,Number9November2015
Thisyear’s covercompetition is broughtto youin associationwithZEISS.Astheworld’sonly manufac-tureroflight,X-rayandelectronmicroscopes,ZEISS offerstailor-mademicroscopesystems formaterials research,academiaandindustry.
Visitwww.zeiss.com/microscopytolearnmore. Visitwww.materialstoday.com/cover-competition-2014toseetheallthe winningimages.
524
UNC
OVE
