Fullerene nanowhisker nanocomposite—current stance and high-tech opportunities

ABSTRACT

Fullerene has been identified as distinctive nanocarbon. A unique form of fullerene is fullerene nanowhisker i.e. made up of aligned fullerene molecule aggregation to yield tiny crystal nanofiber of <100 nm diameter/length. Like fullerene, fullerene nanowhisker has been used as polymer reinforcement. The polymer/fullerene nanowhisker nanocomposite has been mostly developed using conjugated polymeric matrices and solution mixing technique. With conducting polymer, fullerene nanowhisker may lead to π-π interactions and charge transfer complex formation. Consequently, polymer/fullerene nanowhisker nanocomposite possess fine morphology, compatibility, electron transport, capacitance, and photovoltaic related properties. Applications of polymer/fullerene nanowhisker nanocomposite have been perceived for supercapacitors and photovolataics.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Fullerene
• nanowhisker
• polymer
• nanocomposite
• supercapacitor
• photovolataic

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Ayesha Kausar

Ayesha Kausar works for National Centre for Physics, Islamabad, Pakistan. She previously worked for Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan and National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan. She obtained her PhD from Quaid-i-Azam University and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, South Korea. Dr. Kausar’s current research interests include the design, fabrication, characterization, and exploration of structure-property relationships and potential prospects of nanocomposites, polymeric nanocomposites, polymeric composites, polymeric nanoparticles, polymer dots, nanocarbon materials (graphene and derivatives, carbon nanotube, nanodiamond, graphene, carbon nano-onion, carbon nanocoil, carbon nanobelt, carbon nanodisk, carbon dot, and other nanocarbons), hybrid materials, eco-friendly materials, nanocomposite nanofibers, and nano-foam architectures. Consideration of morphological, mechanical, thermal, electrical, anti-corrosion, barrier, flame retardant, radiation shielding, biomedical, and other essential materials properties for aerospace, automotive, fuel cell membranes, Li-ion battery electrodes, electronics, sensors, solar cells, water treatment, gas separation, textiles, energy production and storage devices, biomaterials, and other technical relevance are among her notable research concerns.