Nanocomp Technologies Inc. (Concord, N.H.), a developer of next-generation performance materials, announced on May 14 that it has successfully produced a new textile material from long carbon nanotubes. The material, in usable nonwoven sheet and yarn forms, is extremely lightweight and strong, conducts electricity and heat and could provide the practical utility that nanocomposites have promised for so long but have never quite delivered. Real and potential applications range from body armor to structural composites, as well as commercial energy storage and electronics thermal management.
In a phone interview with Compositesworld, Nanocomp CEO Peter Antoinette said most of the company’s efforts with the material has focused on the development and application of the nonwoven form of the nanocomposite. Right now, he says, Nanocomp is working with what Antoinette calls post-R&D engineering machinery to produce sheets of nonwoven nanocomposite material that measures about 2 ft2 in thicknesses ranging from 10 to 15 microns. The carbon nanotubes themselves range in length from a few hundred microns and into millimeters.
He said the company’s production system, working in batch mode, can produce about two such sheets per shift; he hopes, by the end of 2007, to increase that number to two sheets per hour. By the end of 2008 Antoinette expects to upgrade to continuous, non-batch machinery to achieve substantial capacity increases and a pricing plan that would put the material in the same ballpark as aviation grade carbon fiber. “Models indicate that it’s achievable and we are gearing our operations in that direction,� said Antoinette. Further, Nanocomp plans to be able to provide nanocomposite nonwovens in a variety of fabric sizes, including continuous strips in rolls with widths comparable to carbon fiber tapes used in automated tape laying machinery.
Antoinette further added that most of Nanocomp’s application of the nanocomposite nonwoven has been to augment existing products, primarily in military body armor in cooperation with the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center and the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research. “We’ll initially be helping current materials get better until our materials prove themselves as a complete replacement,� he said.
Indeed, it appears one of the hurdles the material presents is just in understanding potential applications. Unlike traditional nanocomposites, which come in powder form, the nonwoven material has apparent utility in layup processes. “This takes more of a prepreg approach to carbon nanotubes than I think the industry is used to,� Anoinette said. Along those lines, Nanocomp has just begun testing of the nonwoven to assess material performance in contact with resins after infusion and cure. “We’re working on how to infuse these materials properly,� Antoinette said, adding that he harbored some concerns that wetting out the nanocomposite nonwoven might compromise conductivity. When dry, Antoinette says the nonwoven exhibits excellent conductivity.
In the near term, Nanocomp expects its materials to be used in conjunction with carbon fibers and aramids to reduce weight and improve performance of body armor; incorporated into land, air and marine vehicle structures to improve fuel economy; used for next-generation wiring systems and antennas; and, due to their ability to take an electrical charge much faster and many more times than batteries, used to create ultra capacitors to store large amounts of energy from intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar energy, as well as to smooth out demand spikes in the power network.
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