Carbon is an essential constituent element of all living organisms. A unique feature of carbon is the variety of forms that it can assume when two or more atoms bond. Carbon has thus attracted, and continues to attract, considerable R&D interest from researchers all over the world. The use of carbon in nanotechnology is a very promising area of research, and considerable government funding is being invested in carbon nanotechnology research. Even after many years of study, an aura of mystery continues to surround the question of how many crystallographic forms/allotropes of carbon exist. The known forms of carbon are: graphene, graphite, diamond, nanotubes, fullerenes (C60, C36...) and nanodiamondoids. Each of these forms of carbon is characterized by different numbers of hybrid orbitals (sp2, sp3, sp). This work comprises ten comprehensive chapters, on carbon-based materials, written by experts in the field. The chapters contain up-to-date fundamental and practical information concerning carbon-based materials.
They include work on diamondoid hydrocarbons, carbon nanotubes, nanocrystalline/microcrystalline/ultra-nanocrystalline diamond and carbon nanostructured materials, thus providing an uniquely valuable introduction to the subjecy.