Nanocarbon-metal oxide hybrid

Synthesis and electrochromic properties of nanocarbon-metal oxide hybrids... 

Liquid-phase chemical reduction is suitable for the formation of metal and metal oxide NPs on nanocarbons. Careful consideration is required in designing the nanocarbon-precursor interaction and choosing the reduction/oxidation method. The synthetic process is often quite time consuming and a number of filtering/washing steps are often required. As discussed, the concurrent liquid phase reduction of GO and precursor is a simple, efficient way to produce a hybrid but the lack of control of GO reduction may affect further applications. 

The highlighted examples of gas phase hybridization clearly show that they are well suited for the deposition of metals and metal oxides. They are most practical when the nanocarbons are either surface bound or grown from a surface, such as CVD grown graphene and CNT forests. Improved control of layer thickness can be obtained, in comparison to wet chemical approaches, but the synthesis strategies generally require sophisticated equipment not often present in a laboratory. 

The in situ wet chemical approach requires less nanocarbon modification, especially for electrodeposition, and can produce thin, uniform, multilayer films. This is the method of choice for nanocarbon-polymer hybrids as the increased interfacial area reduces problems of nanocarbon insolubility and subsequent aggregation. Gas phase deposition offers the greatest control of thin film thickness but is suitable almost exclusively to the deposition of metals and metal oxides. 

The reduction of metal salts can also produce nanocarbon-QD hybrids [167]. CNT-Cd0 8Zn0 2S QD hybrids have been obtained by first adsorbing Cd2+ and Zn2+ ions onto oxidized MWCNTs followed by reduction via addition of Na2S to precipitate the QDs... 

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