TACOMA – Towards Application specific tailoring of CarbOn nanoMAterials
Their remarkable physical, chemical and mechanical properties make nanomaterials suitable for a wide array of applications, for example in sensors, catalysis, supercapacitors and energy storage. Glassy carbon is widely used in sensors, but its properties are still poorly understood. Lack of high-sensitive, high-resolution methods for characterising material properties hinder the development of tailor-made carbon nanomaterials and further improvements in sensor performance. Together with the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and NASA, and funded under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the TACOMA project is developing the world’s first soft X-ray spectroscopy set-up based on transition-edge sensor technology. The technology should allow on-site spectroscopic studies on carbon surface functional groups and carbon–metal bonds.