Inorganic Nanostructures with Sizes down to 1 nm: A Macromolecule Analogue

Abstract

Ultrathin nanostructures exhibit many interesting properties which are absent or less-pronounced in traditional nanomaterials of larger sizes. In this work, we report the synthesis of ultrathin nanowires and nanoribbons of rare earth hydroxides and demonstrate some new phenomena caused by their atomic-level lateral size (1 nm), including ligand-induced gelation, self-assembly framework, and conformational diversity. These features are typically, although not exclusively, found in polymer solutions. The properties of the inorganic backbone and the emerging polymeric characteristics combined prove to be very promising in the design of new hybrid materials.

Face the Edges: Catalytic Active Sites of Nanomaterials

“…However when the sizes of nanowires narrow down to ultrathin, it would be hard to determine what is defect. Ultrathin nanowires could be flexible, and resemble the viscosity behavior of polymers 170. What is more, ultrathin inorganic nanocoils may mimic the self‐folding behavior of biomacromolecues ( Figure 10 h,i) 171.…”

“…Schematic of 2D cluster‐assembly and possible variations in the ultrathin nanoribbon conformation. Reproduced with permission 170. Copyright 2013, American Chemical Society.…”

Highly Flexible Sub‐1 nm Tungsten Oxide Nanobelts as Efficient Desulfurization Catalysts

“…[ 21 ] Recently, our group have succeeded in synthesizing ultrathin GdOOH nanowires with a width of sub-1 nm and a length of over 500 nm. [ 5 ] The as-synthesized ultrathin nanowire dispersions also exhibit interesting viscous property. Unlike other materials, ultrathin nanomaterials possess a sub-1 nm scale, which means the proportion of surface atoms is much higher than ordinary nanomaterials.…”

“…Particularly, it was found that 1-D nanostructures with their feature sizes confi ned within 1nm might show great fl exibility in self assembly behavior [ 4 ] and diverse structural conformations [ 5 ] and thus can be regarded as macromolecule analogues like DNA and polymer. These features that soft matter possesses may mean that ultrathin nanostructures might make a great contribution to the blossom of soft matter research.…”

Hydroxyapatite nanocrystals: colloidal chemistry, assembly and their biological applications

“…Under the designated reaction conditions, the M n+ ions of (RCOO) n M could be reduced to metal nanocrystals by ethanol, or dehydrate to oxides and/or composite oxides, or react with other anion species from the solution phase to yield a large variety of functional nanocrystals. [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] The as-obtained product can be easily collected because of a spontaneous phase-separation process based on the weight of nanocrystals and/or incompatibility between their hydrophobic surfaces and hydrophilic surroundings. This strategy has been demonstrated to be effective in the synthesis of HAp nanocrystals with controllable sizes and shapes comparable with those of other colloidal nanocrystals.…”