Self-Assembly of Carbon Nanostructures

Carbon nanostructures as nanotubes and graphene exhibit extraordinary mechanical and electronic properties. However their manipulation and processing has been limited by their insolubility in most common solvents. The development of efficient methodologies for the chemical modification of CNTs has stimulated the preparation of soluble CNTs that can be used in the construction of several materials. The two main methodologies are based on the non-covalent coating of nanotubes with amphiphilic molecules as lipid, surfactants and polymers, and the covalent functionalization of the nanotube surface by grafting various chemical groups directly onto the backbone.The chemical manipulation of carbon nanostructures is driven by the possibility of combining some of their out-standing properties with those of other interesting materials, such as photoactive, electroactive and/or bioactive units. In order to expand even more the applications of carbon nanostructures, their controlled chemical modification gives a reliable alternative. The concept of self-assembly provides a unique and extremely interesting route towards the formation of organized structures via a bottom-up approach. In this work we present the latest advances in the chemical modification of carbon nanostructures for utilization in a wide range of applications.

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