Carbon-enabled microwave chemistry: From interaction mechanisms to nanomaterial manufacturing

The multiple interaction effects between external microwave fields and carbon materials trigger the thermocatalysis and conversion reactions by constructing the uniformly thermal room or localized heat microenvironment in confined space, providing an alternative and promising technology for functional materials engineering and manufacturing. This review summarizes the state-of-the-art microwave chemistry techniques involved in or enabled by the carbon additives, with a focus on the introduction of the underlying mechanism, influence factors/key parameters, and the technologies of advanced material preparation from nano to bulk scales. Specifically, it is reviewed in detail that the carbon materials are used as microwave heating media and hotspots/arc plasmas generators to drive and boost the thermochemical reactions. The carbon materials as precursors in microwave are also summarized, which can be helpful for producing the advanced materials with tailored properties and multi-functionalities that are not far realized by conventional techniques/methods. Moreover, the expectation for the future of carbon-participated microwave processes and some approaches to optimizing the corresponding reactions in terms of the technical and industrial levels are proposed, which will help to jump out of gap from lab to industrial application and finally inspire many more endeavors for the manufacturing of advanced/innovative nanomaterials in future.