A swarm intelligence modeling approach reveals noble gas cluster configurations confined within carbon nanotubes.

Confinement of atoms and molecules brings forth fascinating properties to chemical systems that are otherwise not known in the bulk. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and fullerenes are excellent hosts for probing the confinement effects. Herein, we explore the potential energy surfaces of large noble gas clusters, Ngn (Ng = He, Ne and Ar; n = 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50), in the confines of CNTs of various lengths.

Adsorption of Monocyclic Carbon Rings on Graphene: Energetics Revealed via Continuum Modeling.

Gas-phase spectroscopic detection of tiny carbon clusters is a recent success story in the area of carbon cluster research. However, experimental production and isolation of these clusters are extremely difficult because of their high reactivity. One possibility to isolate the generated clusters would be to deposit them on graphene and to desorb them for subsequent use.

Graphynes: indispensable nanoporous architectures in carbon flatland.

Theoretical design and experimental realization of novel nanoporous architectures in carbon membranes has been a success story in recent times. Research on graphynes, an interesting class of materials in carbon flatland, has contributed immensely to this success story. Graphyne frameworks possessing sp and sp hybridized carbon atoms offer a variety of uniformly distributed nanoporous architectures for applications ranging from water desalination, gas separation, and energy storage to catalysis.

Selective Permeation through One-Atom-Thick Nanoporous Carbon Membranes: Theory Reveals Excellent Design Strategies!

Research on the permeation of various species through one-atom-thick nanoporous carbon membranes has gained an unprecedented importance in the past decade, thanks to the development of numerous theoretical design strategies for a plethora of applications ranging from gas separation, water desalination, isotope separation, and chiral separation, to DNA sequencing. Although some of the recent experiments have demonstrated successful performance of such carbon membranes in sieving, many of the suggested applications are yet to be realized in experiments. This review aims to draw the attention of the theoretical as well as the experimental researchers working on two-dimensional carbon materials toward the recent theoretical developments probing the permeation of various species such as atoms, ions, small molecules, and biopolymers like DNA through carbon frameworks like graphynes, graphdiyne, graphenylenes, and various forms of nanoporous graphene, including graphene crown ethers.