Nanoflower

A nanoflower, in chemistry, refers to a compound of certain elements that results in formations which in microscopic view resemble flowers or, in some cases, trees that are called nanobouquets or nanotrees.^[1] These formations are nanometers long and thick so they can only be observed using electron microscopy.^[2]

Catalytic nanomaterial with a flower-shaped structure

Production

Several ways to produce nanoflowers are known:

• A process similar to the making of a carbon nanotube using a hydrocarbon gas.
• Heating gallium (Ga) and then flowing methane (CH₄) over, under specific pressure and heat. This forms flower-shaped silicon carbide (SiC) structures.
• Heating a molybdenum dioxide (MoO₂) thin film on a piece of molybdenum foil surrounded by sulfur vapour.^[3]

Nanomeadow

In supercapacitors, energy is stored because the electrodes are coated with a porous material that soaks up ions like a sponge, usually activated carbon. Nanomeadow supercapacitors store ions in manganese oxide (MnO), a material with a much greater capacity for ions than activated carbon.^[4]

Scientists at Research Institute of Chemical Defence (Beijing, China) and Peking University created a nanomeadow of microscopic structures, fuzzy flowers of MnO each about 100 nanometres across on a field of messy carbon nanotube grass grown on a tantalum metal foil. Nanomeadows perform 10 times better than MnO alone and can store twice as much charge as the carbon-based electrodes in existing ultracapacitors.^[4]

See also

• Carbon nanotubes in photovoltaics
• Carbon nanotube – Allotropes of carbon with a cylindrical nanostructure
• Selective chemistry of single-walled nanotubes
• Resonance Raman spectroscopy – Raman spectroscopy technique
• Allotropes of carbon – Materials made only out of carbon
• graphene – Hexagonal lattice made of carbon atoms
• buckypaper – Thin sheet made of aggregated carbon nanotubes
• Electric double-layer capacitor – High-capacity electrochemical capacitorPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Hiromichi Kataura – Japanese scientist (born 1959)