Inorganic Nanotubes and Fullerene-Like Structures—From Synthesis to Applications

Inorganic fullerene (IF)-like nanoparticles and inorganic nanotubes (INT) form a relatively new class of nanomaterials. They are generically produced from layered (2D) materials, which enable formation of stable, closed, hollow structures in the nanodomain. Taking advantage of the structural analogy between graphite and inorganic 2D compounds, researchers demonstrated that nanoparticles of WS₂ (Tenne et al. 1992), MoS₂ (Feldman et al. 1995, Margulis et al. 1993), BN (Chopra et al. 1995, Golberg et al. 1998), NiCl₂ (Rosenfeld Hacohen et al. 1998), and the like become unstable in the platelet (bulk) form and spontaneously assemble into hollow seamless structures, such as multiwall quasi-spherical spheres, nanooctahedra (Parilla et al. 1999), or nanotubes. The research on these nanostructures brought about major advances in chemistry and nanotechnology, and pointed to many possible applications.