Synthesis characterizations and applications of hybrid materials based on carbon nanostructures

Carbon materials constitute a large family of diverse structures and textures that underlie an increasing range of applications suggested by the impressive number of papers published on this topic. Several hundreds of thousands of publications have appeared since 1900, out of which, thousands were published during the last decade (Web of Science™, Thomson Reuters, Scopus, SciFinder using as searching topics “carbon materials,” “carbon chemistry,” “carbon nanomaterials,” “carbon nanotubes,” and “graphene”). The popularity of carbon materials is due to a unique combination of physical and chemical properties such as high electrical conductivity, high surface area, good resistance to corrosion, high thermal stability, and high chemical stability in non-oxidizing environments and particular mechanical properties. Carbon materials are easy to process, provide a wide variety of structures and textures, have diverse surface chemical properties and are compatible with other materials, thus are ideal for composites as well. This unique combination of properties is a consequence of the different hybridization of orbitals in C atoms and the possibility of combining with other heteroatoms. Carbon materials form the basis of numerous applications in a wide variety of research and engineering areas. This causes publications on carbon-based materials to appear traditionally in various journals from both scientific and engineering domains. Certainly, new uses will appear considering the versatility of carbon materials. In this thesis, the use of carbon materials for applications in energy storage, gas sensing and additive manufacturing is taken into account. In addition, particular attention is given to different approaches of nanomaterials syntheses either chemical or electrochemical route. Integration of carbon materials (especially nanocarbons) into other components to design functional or structural materials is a critical issue. Functional materials constituted by a carbon material and another component such as metal oxides, polymers and conductive polymers, are very much studied for energy storage. In this case, synthetic methods to achieve an adequate distribution of both components and improve synergies are considered. In summary, research on carbon-based materials is a very dynamic and growing area of study with nearly unlimited possibilities. We still have plentiful theoretical and applied issues to be understood regarding the structure, texture, and properties of carbon materials.