Prof. Fei Wei Group Published a Cover Review Paper on Accounts of Chemical Research

On Feb. 20th, 2017, Prof. Fei Wei group in Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University published a review paper entitled with “Controlled synthesis of ultralong carbon nanotubes with perfect structures and extraordinary properties” on Accounts of Chemical Research published by American Chemical Society (ACS). This paper was featured in the cover in Accounts of Chemical Research (Acc. Chem. Res. 2017, 50, 179-189). The corresponding author is prof. Fei Wei and the first author is Dr. Rufan Zhang, who graduated from Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University in 2014 and now is a postdoctoral researcher in Stanford University.

Figure 1. The cover art of this review paper

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are one-dimensional (1-D) tubular nanomaterials composed by carbon atoms, which have beautiful 1-D structures and extraordinary mechanical, electrical, thermal and optical properties. They have shown promising application potentials in nano-electronics, transparent display, functional materials, energy storage, as well as aeronautics and astronautics, etc. The CNTs have been widely and intensively studied ever since their discovery in 1991 and their annual production has reached thousands of tons globally. However, the as-synthesized CNTs usually have limited lengths (usually within millimeters) and many structural defects, which severely weakened their properties and further blocked their application in the high-end fields. Therefore, it is of significant importance to realize the controlled synthesis of ultralong CNTs with perfect structures and macroscale lengths.

Figure 2. The controlled synthesis and structural characterization of ultralong CNTs.

During the past dozens of years, Prof. Fei Wei group conducted intensive study in the growth mechanism, controlled synthesis, property characterization and application investigation of ultralong CNTs and made a series of breakthroughs. For instance, they synthesized half-meter long CNTs with perfect structures and extraordinary properties. They also discovered the macroscale superlubrication between centimeters long CNT shells and realized the macroscale optical visualization and controlled manipulation of individual CNTs for the first time. These discoveries were published on many top journals such as Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, ACS Nano, and Nano Letters, etc. Prof. Fei Wei group is one of the leading groups in CNT research in the world. In view of the significant contribution made by Prof. Fei Wei on the study of ultralong CNTs, Accounts of Chemical Research invited Prof. Fei Wei to write a review on the controlled synthesis and property study of ultralong CNTs. This review systematically summarizes the growth mechanism, controlled synthesis, defect-control strategy, structural characterization and extraordinary properties, which will shed light on the structural-controlled synthesis and property study of ultralong CNTs in the future.

Accounts of Chemical Research is a review journal published by ACS with an impact factor of 22.003 in 2016, which, together with Chemical Reviews also published by ACS and Chemical Society Reviews published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, ranked one of the Top 3 review journals in chemistry and chemical engineering.