Abstract
This article serves to introduce the January 2004 issue of MRS Bulletin on progress toward applications of ceramic nanostructures. Conventional ceramic materials are widely used today in areas ranging from structural to biological applications, and in devices as diverse as lasers, semiconductors, sensors, and piezoelectric components. Such materials include oxides, carbides, nitrides, mixed oxides, and composites.Over the last decade, the use of ceramic nanostructures has already changed the approach to materials design in many of these applications, by seeking structural control at the atomic level and tailoring of the engineering properties. The articles in this issue review the advantages of nanoceramics, their application in various fields, and the challenges involved in their fabrication.
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Sudipta Seal, Guest Editor for this issue of MRS Bulletin, is an associate professor of materials science and engineering in the Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center (AMPAC) and the Department of Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando. He has served as a nanoinitiative coordinator for UCF since 2001. Seal’s research has focused on the synthesis, characterization, and application of nanostructured oxide and metallic materials and associated surfaceengineering- related phenomena. His expertise lies in sol-gel and microemulsion- synthesized nanomaterials for coatings for high-temperature and room-temperature gas sensors and bulk nanostructure fabrication of lightweight, high-strength materials using plasma-spray forming. His most recent work has involved developing regenerative oxide nanomaterials in collaboration with a microbiologist for multifaceted biological applications in aging and in the prevention of cell dysfunction and cardiovascular disease.
Seal received his PhD degree in 1996 from the University of Wisconsin and an MS degree from the University of Sheffield (United Kingdom). He received a BTech degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in metallurgical and materials engineering in 1990. He joined the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California—Berkeley, as a postdoctoral fellow in materials science, synchrotron radiation x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and microscopy of advanced materials. In the fall of 1997, he joined the faculty at UCF. He is also an adjunct faculty member in the Biomolecular Science Department at UCF.
Seal serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Sensors Letters, and Reviews in Advanced Materials; the review board of Metallurgical Transactions; and is chair of the Surface Engineering sector for JOM. Starting in 2004, he will be an associate editor for the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology. Seal has published more than 135 peerreviewed journal papers, edited books and book chapters, and delivered more than 150 invited lectures and research presentations in the United States and abroad. He has organized symposia for TMS, ASM International, and ECS on surface engineering and nanotechnology and recently organized a workshop on nanotechnology (Crete, Greece) sponsored by National Science Foundation. He is the recipient of the 2002 ONR Young Investigator Award, the 2003 Distinguished ASM-IIM Lecturer Award from ASM International, and In vitro studies indicated that pristine LDH nanohybrid material had no cytotoxic or growth-inhibitory effects. From the pharmacokinetic in vivo studies, the possibility of using the bio-LDH nanohybrids as a device for slow-release intravenous drug administration can be suggested. The fifth article, by Golberg et al., presents nanotubular structures in the B-C-N ceramic system that represent an intriguing alternative to conventional carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Because of the ability to widely vary nanotube chemical composition within the B-C-N ternary phase diagram and to change the stacking of C-rich or BN-rich tubular shells in multiwalled structures, a wide horizon opens up for tuning nanostructure electrical properties. Pure CNTs are metals or narrow-bandgap semiconductors, depending on the helicity and diameter of the nanotubes, whereas BN nanotubes are insulators with a _5.0 eV gap independent of these parameters. Thus, the relative B/C/N ratios and/or BN-rich and C-rich domain spatial arrangements, rather than tube helicity and diameter, are assumed to primarily determine the B-C-N nanotube electrical response. This characteristic is highly valuable for nanotechnology because while tube diameter and helicity are currently difficult to control, continuous doping of C with BN, or vice versa, proceeds relatively easily due to the isostructural nature of layered C and BN materials. In this article, recent progress in synthesis, microscopic analysis, and electrical property measurements of a variety of compound nanotubes in the ceramic B-C-N system is documented and discussed. Besides structural materials, nanoceramics are intended to play a major role in photovoltaic devices, representing a potentially huge market. In the last article, Brabec et al. consider nanostructures, nanoparticles, and nanoceramics for novel photovoltaic devices and show that by controlling the morphology of organic and inorganic semiconductors on a molecular scale, nanoscaled p–n junctions can be generated in a bulk composite. Such a composite is typically called a “bulk heterojunction composite” and can be considered as one virtual semiconductor combining the electrical and optical properties of the single components. Solar cells constitute one attractive application for bulk heterojunction composites. The ptype semiconducting class encompasses conjugated polymers or oligomers, while for n-type semiconductors, inorganic nanoparticles as well as organic molecules are investigated. Due to the solubility of the single components, production relies on printing techniques. The nonexhaustive examples of ceramic nanostructures presented in this issue demonstrate that multidisciplinary research in nanotechnology is not an option, but rather a necessity. It becomes therefore critical and urgent that researchers from various areas share their expertise and develop a common language. This will ensure faster integration of nanotechnology in industry, in the best interests of society. Sudipta Seal Marie-Isabelle Baraton the 2004 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) fellow award. He is a member of ASM International, TMS, the Materials Research Society, the Electrochemical Society, and the American Vacuum Society (AVS).
Seal can be reached at AMPAC, MMAE, University of Central Florida, 4000 University Blvd., Eng 381, Orlando, FL 32816, USA; tel. 407-882- 1119 or 407-823-5277, fax 407-882-1156, and e-mail sseal@mail.ucf.edu and sseal@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu.
Marie-Isabelle Baraton, Guest Editor for this issue of MRS Bulletin, is a senior scientist in the Department of Ceramics at the University of Limoges, France, where she leads research on nanostructured materials. Her current research interests include the physicochemistry of nanomaterial surfaces (metal oxides and nonoxide ceramics such as SiC, AlN, GaN, and Si3N4), as well as theoretical (ab initio calculations) and experimental studies of chemical reactions at gas/nanomaterial interfaces. Her research work finds applications in the dispersion of nanoparticles in polymeric matrices for microelectronics, semiconductor passivation and surface functionalization, gas sensing, self-assembled layers, and coatings. Baraton received her PhD degree in physics in 1971 and her doctorate in science in 1979 from the University of Limoges. In 1986–1987, she obtained a NATO grant to conduct fundamental research on infrared surface characterization of nano-sized powders and on Langmuir–Blodgett films in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Ottawa and in the Lash Miller Laboratories at the University of Toronto. Baraton has co-authored over 100 refereed papers, communications, and book chapters, including review articles on FTIR surface characterization of nanoparticles. She is the editor of a recently published book on the functionalization of nanoparticles. As the leader of European consortia comprising industries and universities funded by the European Commission, Baraton has coordinated work on novel gas sensors based on nanomaterials for air quality monitoring. She also promoted scientific exchanges on an international basis as director for NATO countries in the organization of a NATO Advanced Study Institute in Kiev, Ukraine, in 2000.
Baraton is a member of the Materials Research Society, the American Chemical Society, and the European Materials Research Society. She organized a symposium on nanomaterials in 1997 for MRS, has served as an MRS Bulletin volume organizer, and was a meeting chair for the 2002 MRS Fall Meeting. Baraton is also chair of the MRS International Relations Committee.
Baraton can be reached at SPCTS-UMR 6638 CNRS, Faculty of Sciences, 123 Avenue Albert Thomas, F-87060 Limoges, France; tel. 33-555-45-7348, fax 33- 55-77-8100, and e-mail baraton@unilim.fr.
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Seal, S., Baraton, MI. Toward Applications of Ceramic Nanostructures. MRS Bulletin 29, 9–15 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs2004.10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs2004.10