Plasma nanoscience: from nano-solids in plasmas to nano-plasmas in solids

Abstract

The unique plasma-specific features and physical phenomena in the organization of nanoscale solid-state systems in a broad range of elemental composition, structure, and dimensionality are critically reviewed. These effects lead to the possibility to localize and control energy and matter at nanoscales and to produce self-organized nano-solids with highly unusual and superior properties. A unifying conceptual framework based on the control of production, transport, and self-organization of precursor species is introduced and a variety of plasmaspecific non-equilibrium and kinetics-driven phenomena across the many temporal and spatial scales is explained. When the plasma is localized to micrometer and nanometer dimensions, new emergent phenomena arise. The examples range from semiconducting quantum dots and nanowires, chirality control of single-walled carbon nanotubes, ultra-fine manipulation of graphenes, nano-diamond, and organic matter, to nano-plasma effects and nano-plasmas of different states of matter. Contents

MnOx/carbon nanotube/reduced graphene oxide nanohybrids as high-performance supercapacitor electrodes

“…Plasmas have recently shown a unique ability to selectively functionalize the surface of carbon-based materials with controllable and graded intensity and depth. 32,33 In particular, the low-energy ions and electrons in atmospheric-pressure DBD plasma may be ideal for grafting a variety of functional groups at the outmost regions over a large area without damaging the structure.…”

On the plasma-based growth of ‘flowing’ graphene sheets at atmospheric pressure conditions

“…Plasmas can ensure simultaneously high temperatures, highly reactive environment-electrons, ions, free radicals, energetic photons (UV radiation). For example, it has been shown that in plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition [1,3,5,7,9,10] a high level of control over material fluxes, heating and concomitantly the structure and properties of formulated materials can be achieved. This method makes use of a substrate inserted in a low-pressure plasma environment.…”

“…Thus, the synthesis and growth of carbon nanostructures proceed via surface reaction and therefore depend on surface conditions. The review of the current status of the plasmabased fabrication of carbon nanostructures and in particular of graphene can be found elsewhere [1,3,5,9,10]. Different plasma sources have been tested using various precursors (methane, alcohols, etc) for graphene synthesis [3,10].…”

“…Carbon materials are of great interest for investigation and industrial activities owing to their abundance, stability and relative environmental friendliness [1][2][3][4]. Depending on the foreseen application, different carbon-based nanomaterials such as nanocrystals, fullerenes, carbon nanotubes (CNT), nanofibers, graphene, nanoribbons, and nanoflakes have been intensively investigated [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. CNTs discovery symbolizes a benchmark in nanoscience [14].…”

“…Recently many research groups shifted their research target towards graphene and related structures (graphene sheets, nanoribbons, carbon nanowalls etc) due to their extraordinary properties and enormous potential for applications [1][2][3][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. The production of graphene requires specific conditions such as sufficiently high energy of the particles supplied to the growth zone and balanced influx of carbon particles.…”