University of Cincinnati Researchers Grow Their Longest Carbon Nanotube Ever
NetComposites.com
Publication Date: December 3, 2006
In conjunction with First Nano (FN), a division of CVD Equipment Corporation, University of Cincinnati Researchers have grown an array on FN’s EasyTube Carbon Nanotube system that is longer than 7 mm.
“The harmonious combination of substrate, alloy catalyst and process conditions was found to consistently produce nanotube arrays more than 7 mm long” says Professor Vesselin Shanov, co-director of Smart Materials Nanotechnology Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati (UC). In recognition for its commitment to nanotechnology education at both the graduate and undergraduate level, UC is ranked #2 in the United States for nanotechnology education by Small Times magazine. “First Nano and UC have collaborated in the past and are planning on future collaboration to scale up production of nanotube arrays for applications that man has only dreamed of, like a super-strong cable for a space elevator and featherweight composite materials for sporting goods, aircraft structures, armour and many more uses.”
The recent breakthroughs at the University of Cincinnati and CVD Equipment Corporation (of Ronkonkoma, New York), have led to the growth of large carbon nanotube arrays. While individual carbon nanotubes are only 20 billionths of a metre in diameter, the array of carbon nanotubes grow as millimetre-long dense forests on centimetre-wide substrates. Years of research by UC’s Shanov, Schulz and students Andrew Gorton and Yun YeoHeung led to the invention of the method for growing the large nanotube arrays. Researchers and engineers at CVD Equipment Corporation developed and built the equipment used to grow the large carbon nanotube arrays. |
