Browsing by Author "Mtshali, Christopher Bongani"

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    Fullerene C60 based nanostructures by self-assembly and molecular recognition
    (University of Zululand, 2012) Mtshali, Christopher Bongani; Maaza, M.; Ndwandwe, O.M.
    The drive to have biological compatibility, light weight and low cost materials and hard coating which can withstand hard environments such as those in space and nuclear reactors has met with a lot of challenges such as radiation and heat. These challenges pose a threat to the function of expensive components used in space and nuclear reactors. Therefore, Carbon- Carbon composites been an alternative choice for fusion reactor plasma facing components because of their low atomic number, superior thermal shock resistance, higher melting temperature (graphite sublimes at ~3600K), high thermal conductivity and low neutron activation. So, studying how irradiation changes the structure and properties of solid targets is necessary in order to understand the irradiation-induced degradation of components in the nuclear reactors. Although carbon structures have been studied quite extensively, fullerene C60 nanostructures have not received much attention. Furthermore, carbon nanostructures experience a self-healing process when subjected to intense conditions, this created a scope to explore and investigate the effects of such conditions on the nanostructures of fullerene with an additional aim of discovering new properties. Indeed this study has discovered that C60 nanostructures cannot withstand reactor conditions but new vital properties such as magnetism were discovered forming a long term project in the creation of biocompatible light weight room temperature magnets to be applied in electronics.