From Fundamentals to Opportunities and Challenges

Carbon materials play an extremely important role in our society. They not only constitute the largest supply of energy we use today (i.e., coal) but also are the bases of many important technologies ranging from pencils, adsorbents, and metal strengtheners, to batteries and many others. Recent studies on graphitic carbon, including fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and graphene, have further revealed novel optical and electrical properties, making it possible to use them for new applications in renewable energy as well as microelectronics. Moreover, there are many novel and exciting phenomena in these materials such as molecular magnetism, catalysis, biology and medicine, many-body and relativistic quantum mechanics, etc.

The 2014 Gordon Research Conference on Chemistry and Physic of Graphitic Carbon Materials will be devoted to new discoveries and fundamental challenges associated with these materials. The topics include scalable synthesis, characterization, novel physical and electronic properties, structure-properties relationship studies, and emerging applications of the carbon materials. This conference will highlight the urgency for research on graphitic carbon materials and gather scientists in physics, chemistry, and engineering to tackle the challenges in this field.