New progress in the development of nano-cables

Hefei National Laboratory for Microscale Physical Science under the leadership of Professor Yu Shuhong from National University of Science and Technology (CIC) Nanomaterials and Chemistry Research Department, “Outstanding Talents from abroad” program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Outstanding Youth Fund, National Innovation Foundation, National Innovation Under the strong support of the Fund, etc., after making important progress in biomimetic mineralization and biomimetic synthesis of special inorganic nanostructured materials, a series of new advances have been made in the low temperature chemical synthesis of coaxial nanocables and nanotubes.

Coaxial nanocables and composite nanotubes are a new kind of nanostructured materials. The exploration of its synthesis methods has attracted much attention. In the past, synthetic routes often require extremely harsh conditions such as high temperatures, lasers, and carbothermal reduction. The search for economical, gentle, and easy-to-use solution synthesis methods is a research hotspot in this field.

Researchers at the research department discovered a cross-linking phenomenon of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) chains catalyzed by silver ions using a solution method and succeeded in developing it into a method for synthesizing a large number of soft silver/PVA nanocables. And proposed a new mechanism for the synergistic growth of soft-hard templates. It is believed that the stabilization effect of PVA on silver nanowires and the synergistic effect of cross-linked PVA and its bonding leads to the formation of nanocables. The paper was received by the American Chemical Society. Am. Chem. Soc. The reviewer highly praised: “This is an extremely important and outstanding research work. The authors described a method for synthesizing soft silver/PVA nanocables in one step in a multi-step synthesis of PVA chain cross-linked hydrothermal reactions under silver ion catalysis. The cable-like nanostructures obtained are unusual and have important reference value for the cross-linking of material chemistry and linear polymers.The obtained nano-cables have controllable outer shell thickness and long lengths, which are truly provided for synthetic nano-cable structural materials. A promising synthetic pathway is interesting for readers in different fields and may have potential applications in conducting polymer composites and nanotechnology; the results were published in a recent issue of internationally renowned chemical journal J In 2005, 127, 2822-2823, the team led by Professor Yu Shuhong further developed the technology into a universal method for the synthesis of a large number of metal/polymer nano-wires, involving a series of Work is in-depth research.

The research group also used inexpensive carbon sources such as starch and sugar carbohydrates as raw materials, proposed a method of hydrothermal carbonization and reduction in the presence of precious metal salts, and successfully achieved rapid carbonization of starch and sugars. This kind of special metal/carbon composite nanostructured material, compared with the traditional high temperature and vacuum method, realizes the “carbonization in one day” under mild conditions, and obtains various nanomaterials and functions related to carbon materials in the future. It has an important significance. The work was evaluated by Advanced Materials Reviewers: "This is one of the most important and outstanding studies. The authors described the successful synthesis of a variety of unusual metal/carbon composite nanostructured materials by the hydrothermal carbonization co-reduction method. Such as nano-cables, hollow nanotubes, and carbon nanotubes decorated with nanoparticles, this research truly provides a universal method for synthesizing a variety of metal/carbon composite nanostructured materials, using raw starch derived from natural and valence The process of synthesis is also very simple, so this study is very interesting for readers from many fields. "The same time, the research indicates that the formation of metal-catalyzed coal and charcoal in nature may have a close relationship with the experimental results. The research results were published in the famous international journal Adv. Mater. 2004, 16, 1636-1640. In addition, by using the synthesized long silver molybdate nanorods/wires as sacrificial templates, the ultra-long Ag2SiO3/SiO2 composite nanotubes were successfully obtained by controlling the hydrolysis process of tetrabutylsilicon at room temperature and in-situ formation of silver silicide. And show interesting optical properties, the study of the use of sacrificial template synthesis of other composite nanotubes has important reference value. Thesis is also published in Adv. Mater. 2004,16,1109-1112.

The results of these studies indicate that the synthetic routes of mild chemical solutions provide a new idea for the preparation and rational design of new nanostructured materials. These new nanostructured materials with special structures will surely gain important applications in related fields.