No.4 - Dec 2005


	Summary Application of the month: Energy Storage and Conversion Anatomy of a patenting area: Solubilization of Carbon Nanotubes Research papers monitoring Patents monitoring Featured research using Nanocyl nanotubes Researcher profiles

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RESEARCH EMPLOYING NANOCYL NANOTUBES

In this issue we focus on the work of Florian H. Gojny, Malte H.G. Wichmann, Bodo Fiedler and Karl Schulte, from the Polymer Composites group at the Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg. They have just presented a comparative study on “Influence of different carbon nanotubes on the mechanical properties of epoxy matrix composites”, Composites Science and Technology, 2005, (in press).

Double-walled carbon nanotubes (purified and amino-functionalized) were supplied by Nanocyl (www.nanocyl.com).As the researchers report it, they appeared in an entangled cotton-like form and consisted of two graphitic shells with an average outer diameter of 2.8 nm and a length of several micrometers. The amino-functionalization was carried-out by ball-milling purified...

RESEARCHER PROFILES

Prof. Dr. Ing. Karl Schulte
Professor, Head of the Polymer Composites Group
Technical University Hamburg-Harburg
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Dr. Valerie Barron
Senior Researcher, National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science, National University of Ireland, Galway Biomechanics Group
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Andrei N. Khlobystov
RCUK Academic Research Fellow, School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham
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Florian H. Gojny
Researcher, Polymer Composites Group, Technical University Hamburg-Harburg, Germany
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	No.4 - Dec 2005 APPLICATION OF THE MONTH: Energy storage and conversion The range of applications employing carbon nanotubes for energy storage and conversion include fuel cells, batteries, supercapacitors, solar cells, and thermionic power devices. In fuel cells, carbon nanotubes are likely to be utilized for hydrogen storage and in developing new composite materials for proton exchange membranes. They also represent a promising material for lithium storage in lithium-ion batteries and may even find a use in novel carbon-carbon battery types. Another potential application are supercapacitors, where nanotubes could be used as electrodes in electrochemical double layer capacitors. READ MORE... ANATOMY OF A PATENTING AREA: Solubilization of carbon nanotubes An analysis of the registered patents regarding solubilization of carbon nanotubes clearly reveals three trends. First trend refers to the solvent of interest, where the focus migrated from organic solvents to aqueous solutions. The second trend emphasizes the complexity of the methods employed: research has switched from various functionalization techniques that dominated the early years to the ultrasonication approach, quite fashionable today. The third aspect is purely geographic: one could consider the 2001-2003 years as the American period, while from 2004 until nowadays solubilization of carbon nanotubes is passing through an undisputed Asian era. READ MORE... RESEARCH PAPERS IN NOVEMBER (90) Nanoelectronics Pentacene-carbon nanotubes: Semiconducting assemblies for thin-film transistor applications X.-Z. Bo, N. G. Tassi, C. Y. Lee, M. S. Strano, C. Nuckolls, and Graciela B. Blanchet Doping Reentrant Semiconducting Behavior of Zigzag Carbon Nanotubes at Substitutional Doping by Oxygen Dimers Seung-Hoon Jhi, Steven G. Louie, and Marvin L. Cohen Electronic structure Charge screening of single-walled carbon nanotubes in a uniform transverse electric field S. C. Chen, W. C. Hseih, and M. F. Lin READ MORE... PATENTS MONITORING IN NOVEMBER (23) Production Methods of making carbon nanotube films, layers, fabrics, ribbons, elements and articles Inventor: WARD JONATHAN W (US); RUECKES THOMAS (US); SEGAL BRENT M (US) Composite materials Polymer/carbon nanotube composites, methods of use and methods of synthesis thereof Inventor: HARMON JULIE P (US); CLAYTON LANETRA M (US) Nanoelectronics / Nanodevices Medical devices incorporating carbon nanotube material and methods of fabricating same Inventor: GARDESKI KENNETH C (US); BRABEC SCOTT J (US) READ MORE...