ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. Carbon atoms, which possess four active valence electrons, can create the dimension- and curve-related condensed-matter systems, such as, graphite, graphene, graphene nanoribbon (GNR), carbon nanotube, carbon toroid, and fullerene. The carbon-related materials are very suitable for studying the novel physical, chemical, and material phenomena, especially for the emergent low-dimensional systems. The book proposes physical and chemical pictures to fully comprehend the rich and unique phenomena. The single- and multi-orbital hybridizations between the same or distinct atoms, and the edge- and adatom-enriched spin configurations are thoroughly analyzed from the calculated results. Detailed comparisons with the other theoretical predictions and the experimental measurements are made. The high potentials of various materials applications are also discussed.
