Recent progress on vortex fluidic synthesis of carbon nanomaterials

Abstract

Carbon nanomaterials with tunable shapes, morphologies, and sizes have attracted considerable attention owing to their specific physical and chemical properties such as excellent optical and thermal properties, electrical conductivity, and high mechanical strength. Nanomaterial synthesis using dynamic thin films within vortex fluidic devices (VFDs) has many benefits, including a large surface-to-volume ratio of thin films, product uniformity, economic feasibility, environmental sustainability, decreased reaction time, precise temperature and time control, safety improvement, and scalability. This review summarizes recent advancements in the fabrication of various carbon nanomaterials using VFDs, ranging from two-dimensional and three-dimensional (graphene and graphite, respectively) and one-dimensional (carbon nanotubes) to zero-dimensional (fullerene) structures, with controllable sizes, morphologies. Further, this review presents composites with other nanomaterials and metals and the applications of these hybrid materials.