Nanorods and nanofibers

Hard template method has been used for the 1-D nanostructures such as nanotubes, nanorods and nanofibers of conducting polymers. The commonly used templates are AAO membrane, and track-etched PC membrane, whose pore size ranges from 10 nm to 100 pm. Hard template methods for synthesizing conducting polymer nanomaterials have been extensively reviewed in recent years [156-160]. 

Elastomer nanocomposites with one-dimensional nanofillers have been presented in this chapter. The nature of nanofiller has been altered from nanotube to nanorod, and nanofiber with their suitable chemical modifications required for the improvement of various properties. The dispersion and morphology have been explored for... 

Several nanoparticles having a non-spherical shape have been synthesized, e.g., carbon nanotubes, nanofibers, nanorods, and nanowires which exhibit, similar to asbestos, a fibrous shape. 

Sun B. Q. and Greenham N. C. (2006), Improved efficiency of photovoltaics based on CdSe nanorods and poly(3-hexylthiophene) nanofibers , Phys. Chem. Chent. Phys. 8, 3557-3560. 

Peptides composed of various coded and noncoded amino acid residues self-assemble to form various types of supramolecular architectures, including supramolecular helices and sheets, nanotubes, nanorods, nanovesicles, and nanofibers. The higher-order self-assembly of supramolecular (3-sheets or supramolecular helices composed of short synthetic acyclic peptides leads to the formation of amyloid-like fibrils. Synthetic cyclic peptides were used in supramolecular chemistry as molecular scaffolding for artificial receptors, so as to host various chiral and achiral ions and other small neutral substrates. Cyclic peptides also self-assemble like their acyclic counterparts to form supramolecular structures, including hollow nanotubes. Self-assembling cyclic peptides can be served as artificial ion channels, and some of them exhibit potential antimicrobial activities against drug-resistant bacteria. 

PANI would be typically functionalized with selected dopants via either noncovalent or covalent approaches. In addition, nanostructured PANI materials, such as nanorods, nanowires and nanofibers, offer the possibilities to improve the performance of the PANI-based devices (Huang et al., 2003). PANI has demonstrated its biocompatibility in vivo and sparked great interests in tissue engineering. The biocompatibility of PANI can be further improved by the introduction of biocompatible elements without sacrificing its electric conductivity. 

B. Sun, N. C. Greenham, Improved Efficiency of Photovoltaics Based on CdSe Nanorods and Poly(3-Hexylthiophene) Nanofibers. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2006,8,3557. 

First of all, the forerunning work was performed with electrochemical polymerization of PANI micro- and nanorod fabrication [173,174]. Iridium and platinum needles were used as electrodes, and a PANI microrod was grown on the electrode surface. Another approach was related to the ful-lerene derivatives doping with electrochemical polymerization in order to fabricate PANI microfibers and nanofibers [175,176]. hi addition, PPy microtubes have been synthesized in the presence of S-naphthalene sulphonic acid (jd-NSA) by electrochemical polymerization. This microtube has the diameter of 0.8-2.0 xm and the length of 15-30 im. Electrochemical deposition of PANI has been also carried out within multi-walled CNT. hi addition, PPy microtube (a few mm in length and hundreds xm in diameter) is formed in the presence of Na-toluene sulphonic acid along platinum wire [177]. 

Despite of many advantages of DSSCs, still lower efficiency compared to commercialized inorganic solar cells is a challenging area. Recently, one-dimensional nanomaterials, such as nanorods, nanotubes and nanofibers, have been proposed to replace the nanoparticles in DSSCs because of their ability to improve the electron transport leading to enhanced electron collection efficiencies in DSSCs. 

Wang J, Chen Y, Zhang Y, lonescu MI, Li R, Sun X, Ye S, Knights S (2011) 3D boron doped carbon nanorods/carbon nanofiber hybrid composite synthesis and application in highly stable proton exchange membrane fuel cell. J Mater Chem 21(45) 18195-18198... 

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