posted on Nov, 18 2004 @ 11:16 PM
Japenese Scientist Kenji Hata and colleagues from the National Institute of Adv. Industrial Sci. & Tech. in Tsukuba have developed a new, cheaper
method of fabricating CNTs(Carbon Nanotubes) for Commercial usage. Simply adding Water Vapor to current methods of creating CNTs, will enhance
catalytic activity which results in massive growth of dense forests of nanotubes with heights up to 2.5 mm that can be easily be refined to achieve
99.98% purity.
www.betterhumans.com
Simply adding water vapor to a method of creating carbon nanotubes could allow them to be cheaply grown in large quantities for commercial use.
While nanotubes are prohibitively expensive at about US$500 per gram, Japanese researcher Kenji Hata and colleagues from the National Institute of
Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba report that by using water vapor they have been able to easily grow nanotube sheets, pillars and
other shapes.
If their method can be scaled up, it could provide a feasible way of producing nanotubes for such things as faster computer circuits.
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
This is in my opinion one of the biggest breakthrough in the Nano field to date. I havn't found anything on how much this method will reduce the
cost of CNT fabrication, but even if it doesn't reduce the cost at all, it will still be significant because it makes refining CNTs so much easier.
The nano field is progressing faster than anyone expected, and with this new breakthrough who knows what type of commercial products will become
available. Maybe even the space elevator will start to get some consideration by policy makers now.
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[edit on 11-19-2004 by Zion Mainframe]