Nanostructured Materials Synthesized Using Electrochemical Techniques

Abstract

The visualization and/or handling of atom clusters, or even individual atoms, has been achieved during the past 25 years. One of the most practical instruments for this purpose is the tunneling microscope, which was invented during the 1980s. On such a small scale, materials properties are not the same as those of a macroscopicsized substance. The first occasion on which a scientist proposed atom handling was in 1959, when Professor Richard Feynman [1], during a lecture at the California Institute Technology, suggested that in the near future engineers would be able to take atoms and place them exactly where they wanted to, without -of courseinfringing the laws of Nature. Today, Professor Feynmans lecture, which was entitled There is Plenty of Room at the Bottom, is considered a milestone of the current technological and scientific era.We can define nanoscience as the study of the phenomena and handling of structures on the atomic, molecular and macromolecular scale, where at least one dimension is significantly less than the others. And nanotechnology includes the design, characterization, and production of devices and systems on a nanometer scale. This definition of nanotechnology is wide-ranging, it is not a specific technology, all of the techniques based on physics, chemistry, biology, materials science and engineering -and/or using computers -leading to the development of materials and tools in such a way that the common point among them is the reduced dimension in which they operate. Among these applications are: increased storage and processing capacity for computers; the creation of new mechanisms for drug delivery; and the production of materials which are both lighter and more resistant than metals and plastics. Additional benefits of nanotechnology developments include energy saving, environmental protection, and the more efficient use of increasingly scarce raw materials.Today, these new investigations into material fabrication are focused mainly on nanostructured devices or, at least, microdevices. The most-often used technique for j117 Nanostructured Materials in Electrochemistry. Edited by Ali Eftekhari

Formation and Entrapment of Tris(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminum from 8-Hydroxyquinoline in Anodic Porous Alumina

“…Recently, APA processing has attracted remarkable interest in various scientific and technological fields such as electrochemistry, material science and, especially, nanotechnology, since the pioneering work on self-ordered nanoporous alumina conducted by Masuda et al [ 4 ]. The usage of ordered pore array structures as a template allows the preparation of a large variety of nanomaterials and nanocomposites for various applications, including photonic crystals, light-emitting devices, capacitors, biosensors and medical equipment [ 3 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ].…”

Electrochemical fabrication and characterization of Cu/Cu2O multi-layered micro and nanorods in Li-ion batteries

“…Superlattice nanostructures with modified energy band-gap have thus found to be promising for solar conversion 5,6 while the giant magnetoresistance effect of magnetic superlattice structures is highly attractive to the semiconductor industry [2][3][4] . Recent advances in electrodeposition have, however, enabled well-controlled manufacturing of multilayered films 4,[12][13][14] , which has paved the way for important developments within this technologically important area. At present, vacuum deposition methods such as sputtering and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) are generally employed for the manufacturing of periodic superlattices [9][10][11] .…”

“…7,8 At present, vacuum deposition methods such as sputtering and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) are generally employed for the manufacturing of periodic superlattices. [9][10][11] Recent advances in electrodeposition have, however, enabled well-controlled manufacturing of multi-layered films, 4,[12][13][14] which has paved the way for important developments within this technologically important area.…”

Template-Free Electrodeposition of One-Dimensional Nanostructures of Tellurium

“…2 TAED has been widely used to prepare 1D nanostructures of many materials. 3 By using a template, nanorods and nanotubes with uniform diameters as well as segmented nanorods can be readily grown in an array. 4,5 It has been known that some materials attain 1D growth under certain conditions without using any template due to their intrinsic highly anisotropic crystal structures.…”