A nanoflower, in chemistry, refers to a compound of certain elements that results in formations which in microscopic view resemble flowers or, in some cases, trees that are called nanobouquets or nanotrees.^[1] These formations are nanometers long and thick so they can only be observed using electron microscopy.^[2]

Production

Several ways to produce nanoflowers are known:

• A process similar to the making of a carbon nanotube using a hydrocarbon gas.
• Heating gallium (Ga) and then flowing methane (CH₄) over, under specific pressure and heat. This forms flower-shaped silicon carbide (SiC) structures.
• Heating a molybdenum dioxide (MoO₂) thin film on a piece of molybdenum foil surrounded by sulfur vapour.^[3]

Nanomeadow

In supercapacitors, energy is stored because the electrodes are coated with a porous material that soaks up ions like a sponge, usually activated carbon. Nanomeadow supercapacitors store ions in manganese oxide (MnO), a material with a much greater capacity for ions than activated carbon.^[4]

Scientists at Research Institute of Chemical Defence (Beijing, China) and Peking University created a nanomeadow of microscopic structures, fuzzy flowers of MnO each about 100 nanometres across on a field of messy carbon nanotube grass grown on a tantalum metal foil. Nanomeadows perform 10 times better than MnO alone and can store twice as much charge as the carbon-based electrodes in existing ultracapacitors.^[4]