Nanoarchitectonics for Nanocarbon Assembly and Composite

Abstract

An emerging concept, nanoarchitectonics, raises the stage of nanotechnology to materials productions with nanoscale precisions through inclusion of the other research fields. In this review article, we exemplify nanocarbon assembly and composite as successful products of the nanoarchitectonics concept. Nanocarbon materials are representative objects to demonstrate the wide possibilities of functional varieties through structural fabrication using uni-elemental zero-dimensional objects such as fullerenes, one-dimensional carbon nanotube, two-dimensional graphene, and three dimensional assemblies and composites. Here, several related examples are introduced according to classification with (i) self-assembly mainly with liquid–liquid interfacial precipitation, (ii) process-based assembly mainly with layer-by-layer assembly, and (iii) composite formation mainly with metal oxides. The research efforts in self-assembly and process-assembly somehow still stay at challenging and basic stages. In contrast, research examples on composites of nanocarbon materials with various metal oxides are aiming to practical applications especially in energy-related applications, but the latter composite approaches do not have features of precise structure controls, yet. Therefore, more aggressive introduction of the nanoarchitectonics concept to these practical composite approaches is necessary for further possibilities to create materials with much more advanced performances.