Fluorescent carbon nano-materials with quantum confinement and edge effects have recently piqued attention in a variety of applications, including biological imaging, drug delivery, optoelectronics and sensing. These nano-materials can be synthesized from a variety of carbon-based precursors using both top-down and bottom-up methods. Coal and its derivatives typically include a vast crystalline network and condensed aromatic ring cluster, which can be easily exfoliated by chemical, electrochemical, or physical processes to produce nano-materials. As a result, they are regarded as a low-cost, abundant and efficient carbon source for the fabrication of high-yield nano-materials. Nano-materials synthesized from coal-based precursors have outstanding fluorescence, photostability, biocompatibility and low toxicity, among other properties. Their properties in optical sensors, LED devices, bio-imaging, and photo and electro-catalyst applications have already been investigated. In this review, we have highlighted current developments in the synthesis, structural properties and fluorescence properties of nano-materials synthesized from coal-based precursors.

Carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced hydroxyapatite (HAp) composites were fabricated by using the spark plasma sintering process with surfactant modified CNT and HAp nano powder. Without the dependency on sintering temperature, the main crystal phase existed with the HAp phase although a few contents of (Tri calcium phosphate) phase were detected. The maximum fracture toughness, was obtained in the sample sintered at and on the fracture surface a typical intergranular fracture mode, as well as the pull-out pmhenomenon of CNT, was observed.