Preface
The discovery of carbon black in the early twentieth-century was followed by the
discovery of nanodiamonds in 1963, fullerenes in 1985, carbon nanotubes in 1991 and
graphene in 2004, introducing the main members of the so-called nanostructured
carbon family. This family represents the first and most commercially successful examples of nanomaterials with a current worldwide market of several billions of
dollars per year, which is continuously expanding due to their unique combination of
properties including tunable electronic, thermal and surface characteristics as well as
biocompatibility, chemical inertness in various corrosive media, and impressive
mechanical properties. Consequently, carbon nanostructures have the capability of
being used in endless applications across multiple market sectors including renewable energy, environmental protection and structural/functional composites. Carbon
nanostructures are currently produced in commercial scales with techniques such as
vacuum arc process, chemical vapor deposition, laser ablation and detonation, and
a large number of books and book chapters have been published on these technologies. Not to mention that the application potential of carbon nanostructures is far
greater than their current reality, which is mainly due to the expensive and complicated methods used for their commercial production, causing an increasing demand
for new methods and technologies for the green and low cost production of various
kinds of high quality carbon nanostructures for the current and emerging applications.
This is the first book that presents an overview of molten salt technologies for
sustainable and low cost production of carbon nanostructures and their applications.
Based on the author's long teaching and research experience in the field in the
university of Cambridge (UK) and Northeastern University (China), this book
would serve as a useful text or reference for a broad range of readers from both
academia and industry, and particularly for those who wish to gain a scientific
and interdisciplinary perspective of this emerging field. The book contains eight
chapters that provide an integrative overview of chemical and electrochemical
interactions between molten salts and carbonaceous materials for the preparation of
carbon nanostructures as well as possible mechanisms involved and various
applications of nanostructured carbon products. I would like to thank all those who
contributed in the related experiments or the subsequent discussions, and
v
The discovery of carbon black in the early twentieth-century was followed by the
discovery of nanodiamonds in 1963, fullerenes in 1985, carbon nanotubes in 1991 and
graphene in 2004, introducing the main members of the so-called nanostructured
carbon family. This family represents the first and most commercially successful examples of nanomaterials with a current worldwide market of several billions of
dollars per year, which is continuously expanding due to their unique combination of
properties including tunable electronic, thermal and surface characteristics as well as
biocompatibility, chemical inertness in various corrosive media, and impressive
mechanical properties. Consequently, carbon nanostructures have the capability of
being used in endless applications across multiple market sectors including renewable energy, environmental protection and structural/functional composites. Carbon
nanostructures are currently produced in commercial scales with techniques such as
vacuum arc process, chemical vapor deposition, laser ablation and detonation, and
a large number of books and book chapters have been published on these technologies. Not to mention that the application potential of carbon nanostructures is far
greater than their current reality, which is mainly due to the expensive and complicated methods used for their commercial production, causing an increasing demand
for new methods and technologies for the green and low cost production of various
kinds of high quality carbon nanostructures for the current and emerging applications.
This is the first book that presents an overview of molten salt technologies for
sustainable and low cost production of carbon nanostructures and their applications.
Based on the author's long teaching and research experience in the field in the
university of Cambridge (UK) and Northeastern University (China), this book
would serve as a useful text or reference for a broad range of readers from both
academia and industry, and particularly for those who wish to gain a scientific
and interdisciplinary perspective of this emerging field. The book contains eight
chapters that provide an integrative overview of chemical and electrochemical
interactions between molten salts and carbonaceous materials for the preparation of
carbon nanostructures as well as possible mechanisms involved and various
applications of nanostructured carbon products. I would like to thank all those who
contributed in the related experiments or the subsequent discussions, and
v