Volume 11 Issue 4
Wei, F., & Kauppinen, E. I. (2013). Nanoscale particuology—A bridge between microstructure and macroworld. Particuology, 11(4), 359–360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2013.04.001
Nanoscale particuology—A bridge between microstructure and macroworld
10.1016/j.partic.2013.04.001
Volume 11, Issue 4,
August 2013,
Pages 359-360
Available online 30 May 2013.
E-mail:
wf-dce@tsinghua.edu.cn
Highlights
Abstract
Particle is a small object that behaves as a whole entity in respect of its transport and properties. Particuology is the terminology to describe the science and technology of particles. Particuology is a multidisciplinary research built upon the branches of physics, chemistry, mathematics, materials science, biology, and earth science, and connects the fundamental rules to engineering particle systems encompassing a spectrum of applications in areas of chemical, petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries, environmental protection, as well as functional materials (Introduction to Particuology, http://www.journals.elsevier.com/particuology/).
With the rapid growth of nanotechnology, the rising attention on the microstructure of novel nanomaterials and their novel mass production route, fascinating properties, and promising applications in the macroworld has been bringing emerging opportunities for particuology. The innovation on nanomaterials renders a family of important nanoparticles such as 0D quantum dots and fullerenes, 1D nanowires, nanorods and nanotubes, 2D nanoflakes, ultra-thin films, and graphene, as well as 3D nanoarchitectures with impressive properties and promising applications (Roco, 2011). The recent nanoscale particuology researches bring the rising topic on nanomaterial fabrication, atomic scale characterization on fine structures of nanoparticles, and the use of nanoparticle systems in areas such as heterogeneous catalysis, drug delivery, energy conversion and storage, environmental protection, micro-/nano-electromechanics, micro-/nano-fluidics, intelligent sensor and systems, nano-electronics and photonics, etc. For instance, with active researches on particulate carbon nanotubes (CNTs), they have been produced in tons scale via fluidized bed chemical vapor deposition (Zhang, Huang, Zhao, Qian, & Wei, 2011), and used as fillers in advanced battery and supercapacitor electrodes, composites at a scale of hundreds of tons (Endo, 2012, Zhang et al., 2013). CNT film and yarn from superaligned CNT arrays possess high tensile strengths and large conductivity for TEM grids, loudspeakers, touch screens, etc. (Jiang, Wang, Li, Liu, & Fan, 2011). Single walled CNT thin films are on the way to find their use in consumer electronics, e.g. flexible transparent electrodes (Kaskela et al., 2010) and thin film transistors (Liu et al., 2010, Sun et al., 2011) in the emerging flexible devices. These high-end applications require nanomaterials with anticipated nanoarchitectures. The use of microfluidic reactors (Luo, Du, Wang, Lu, & Xu, 2011), fluidized bed reactors (Zhang et al., 2011), hydrothermal reactors (Zhu, Li, Zhang, Xiang, & Zhu, 2010), as well as rotating packed bed reactors (Yang et al., 2010) offers extraordinary measures to control morphology, size distribution, nanostructure, physical and chemical properties of nanomaterials. Furthermore, to meet the requirements for public acceptance and eventual sustainability of nanotechnology, characterization and measurement of nanoparticles, nanoparticle emission and exposure at workplaces, and control and abatement of nanoparticle release are key research topics for environmental, health and safety issues of nanomaterials (Wang, Thompson, & Pui, 2013). The cutting-edge nanoscale process engineering research in the areas of particuology, together with physics, chemistry, materials, engineering, ecology, and social science will allow us to obtain high added value and multi-functional nanomaterials that promote the development of a sustainable society (Huang, Zhang, Zhao, & Wei, 2012).
To accelerate scientific researches and industrial applications, a bridge between microstructure and macroworld, namely the science and technology of nanoparticles, should be widely explored and communicated. Herein, a special issue on Particuology titled ‘Nanoscale Particuology—A Bridge between Microstructure and Macroworld’ is now dedicated to the interested readers of Particuology. This special topic contains three review articles and eleven research papers. The topic covers different areas of nanoscale particuology, including preparation, assembly, property and applications of nanoparticles. Particles usually possess multiscale structures ranging from nano, micro, to macro, which are constructed through the programmed assembly. An avenue for the construction of multiscale functional structures, that is, the nanoparticle assembly-induced special wettability, including superhydrophilic surfaces, superhydrophobic surfaces, superamphiphobic surfaces, stimuli-responsive surfaces and self-healing surfaces is reviewed (Yang, Jin, Liu, & Jiang, 2013). The use of nanoparticles to build flexible supercapacitors that show a great potential for applications in wearable, miniaturized, portable, large-scale transparent and flexible consumer electronics is also briefly summarized (Shi et al., 2013). A special but very efficient assembly route to open up the possibility of constructing a wide range of pure carbon nanotube microstructures and to spark interests in developing applications by directly spinning CNT yarn spun from aligned CNT forest is discussed (Miao, 2013). The recent progress on controllable synthesis of CNTs (Seah, Chai, Ichikawa, & Mohamed, 2013), and their application for supercapacitor as well as Li ion battery (Jiang, Tang, Wu, Lin, & Qu, 2013) is also included. Ionic liquids-coated single walled CNT buckypaper with improved electrical conductance, high mechanical strength and excellent capacitance performance available by debundling CNTs in ionic liquids (Zheng, Qian, Yu, & Wei, 2013), and binder-free porous graphene monoliths with an extraordinary methane storage capacity of 236 v/v at 9 MPa fabricated by tablet pressing of template chemical vapor deposition growth of nanomesh graphene with a loose stacking manner (Ning et al., 2013), which is quite effective to assemble sp2 nanocarbon into 3D macroscopic forms for energy storage, are also presented. Synthesis of nanoscale building blocks with prospective property, as a key task in the area of nanoscale particuology, is well demonstrated for in situ surface modification of CaCO3 nanoparticles using a multiple orifice dispersion microreactor (Du, Wang, & Luo, 2013) and for the rapid synthesis of metal nanowires with uniform diameter and reproducibility at ambient conditions (Fu, Yang, Yu, & Jiang, 2013). The homogeneous dispersion of nanoparticles in solvents or polymer matrices by planetary ball milling technique is illustrated for practical applications of nanocomposites (Zhou, Zhang, Zhang, & Zhang, 2013). The well dispersion of cohesive Ca(OH)2 powder on a silica nanopowder to enhance the rate of CO2 sorption in the initial fast phase of interest for practical applications is reported (Quintanilla & Valverde, 2013). Both the nanoparticle and nanostructured catalysts show promising reactivity for heterogeneous catalysis for efficient conversion of petroleum, natural gas, coal, shale gas and biomass. Herein, the atomic mixing of mixed oxides in nanoscale in terms of catalyst by flame spray pyrolysis for the catalytic oxidation of benzene (Liu et al., 2013), the core–shell structured Fe nanoparticles with excellent air stability and high saturation magnetization for advanced recyclable catalyst and biomedicine (Li, Hu, Huang, & Li, 2013), and hierarchical cross-like SAPO-34 catalysts with different pore size distributions by hydrothermal synthesis to offer dramatic catalytic activity in dimethyl ether conversion into olefins (Cui, Zhang, He, Wang, & Wei, 2013) are exemplified. All these papers presented in this special issue are devoted to the nanoscale particuology to bridge the gaps between microstructure and macroworld, which, we hope, are valuable references for future researches in nanoscale particuology and related fields.
This special issue represents a distinguished effort of the authors and anonymous referees who have worked very efficiently. We thank them for their great contribution.
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