Investigation of graphitic nanostructures and nanomachines

Abstract

Carbon allotropes such as nanotubes, graphene, and buckyball all preserve the same lattice structure. However, their electronic properties are very different depending on their dimensionality. These nanostructures can be functionalized with other chemical groups or can be used to form complicated molecular structures. By using scanning tunneling microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, the functionalization of carbon nanotubes with fluorine was studied as a potential route to tailoring the electrical and chemical properties of carbon nanotubes, and functionalization and exfoliation techniques of graphite without inducing basal plane defects were investigated. Also, building upon our previous research on nanocars, nanodragsters combining buckyball and p-carborane wheels were studied with scanning tunneling microscopy. Unlike its predecessors, a nanodragster can show interesting motions even at room temperature as well as at elevated temperatures.