TABLE OF CONTENTS As discussed in other chapters of this book, nanoscale materials and nanotechnology have generated great interest in the area of microelectronic devices, quantum computation, and nanoscale instrumentation. However, great opportunities in energy storage and conversion, chemical industry, environmental and health sciences have just emerged in the last few years. These opportunities can be illustrated by the following examples.
There has been intensive research in developing alternative energy devices to increase the efficiency of energy storage and delivery, and to reduce environmental pollution caused by energy consumption. In order to improve the energy density and power density for batteries and capacitors, many nanoscale electrode materials have been investigated, including nanoporous carbon and conducting oxide materials (Delnick and Tomkiewicz, 1996; Conway, 1991). The successful design and synthesis of next generation electrode materials depend on the manipulation of the electrochemical potential at the atomic level and on the enhanced charge storage and transfer through nanostructural engineering (Zheng and Jow, 1995). Recently carbon nanotubes have been investigated for efficient hydrogen storage (Chen, et al., 1999). Such materials may have potential use in high-density rechargeable batteries and fuel cells. It was found that at low temperature and high pressure, carbon nanotubes can store up to 67 wt% hydrogen (Dillonet, al., 1997, Chambers, et al.,...
