Nanocomp manufactures first ready-to-use carbon nanotube textile

15 May '07

3 min read

Nanocomp Technologies Inc, a developer of next-generation performance materials announced it has successfully produced a revolutionary new textile material from long carbon nanotubes.

The material, in usable nonwoven sheet and yarn formats, is extremely lightweight and strong, efficiently conducts both electricity and heat, and could be the key to realizing significant functional performance benefits in defense and aerospace applications ranging from body armor to structural composites, as well as commercial energy storage and electronics thermal management.

“We believe we are on the cusp of delivering the promise of carbon nanotube materials,” said Peter Antoinette, Nanocomp president and CEO. “Like our predecessors in performance products who developed Gore-Tex and Tyvek, we have a product platform with vast real-world functionality and, together with the system integrators that will ultimately incorporate it into end-use products, we aim to determine just how broad the benefits can extend.”

Scientists have long known of the remarkable electro-mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes. They are 100 times stronger than steel, one-third the weight of aluminum and extremely conductive of both heat and electricity. This makes them extremely attractive for broad-based use, with the potential to augment or replace many current materials in end-user products.

Antoinette also said that commercial manufacturing processes to date have mostly produced only short carbon nanotubes – usually tens of microns long – that resemble a powder in final form.

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