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TECHFIND - FABRICATION
Dissolving Carbon Nanotubes
Scientists unveiled a method for the industrial-scale processing of pure carbon-nanotube fibers that could lead to revolutionary advances in materials science, power distribution and nanoelectronics. The result of a nine-year program, the method builds upon tried-and-true processes that chemical firms have used for decades to produce plastics. The most common way of processing nanotubes into neat fibers - apart from 'dry' methods where they are spun directly into ropes and yarns are 'wet' methods where CNTs are dispersed into a liquid and solution-spun into fiber. Currently, these processes yield fibers whose properties are not sufficiently close to optimal. The new process involves a way to dissolve large amounts of pure nanotubes in strong acidic solvents like sulfuric acid. The research team subsequently found that nanotubes in these solutions aligned themselves, like spaghetti in a package, to form liquid crystals that could be spun into monofilament fibers about the size of a human hair. By this advance, they can now access established technology that had been developed for processing polymers through solution phase methods - the industrial-scale processes that are at the heart of the plastics industry.
Media Spiders®
Scientists unveiled a method for the industrial-scale processing of pure carbon-nanotube fibers that could lead to revolutionary advances in materials science, power distribution and nanoelectronics. The result of a nine-year program, the method builds upon tried-and-true processes that chemical firms have used for decades to produce plastics. The most common way of processing nanotubes into neat fibers - apart from 'dry' methods where they are spun directly into ropes and yarns are 'wet' methods where CNTs are dispersed into a liquid and solution-spun into fiber. Currently, these processes yield fibers whose properties are not sufficiently close to optimal. The new process involves a way to dissolve large amounts of pure nanotubes in strong acidic solvents like sulfuric acid. The research team subsequently found that nanotubes in these solutions aligned themselves, like spaghetti in a package, to form liquid crystals that could be spun into monofilament fibers about the size of a human hair. By this advance, they can now access established technology that had been developed for processing polymers through solution phase methods - the industrial-scale processes that are at the heart of the plastics industry. 
