TII Innovation Journal

Carbon nanotube: now clearly stronger than the rest

It works in the lab, it is often said of new technologies. Now some individual strands of the carbon nano tube fiber material have clearly outperformed in strength the strongest currently commercially available fibers, according to the MIT Technology Review Monday Nov. 19 web update.

Alan Windle, a professor of materials science at the University of Cambridge, in England, made and tested the new nanotube fibers along with researchers at the Natick Soldier Research Development Center, in Massachusetts. In his methodology there is still a clear manufacturing variation; the weakest of the fibers only about averaged the strength of steel, while it seems the average strength of the fibers made with this method was about similar to "materials used in bullet-proof vests, such as Kevlar. These nanotube fibers matched the highest reported strengths for a couple of the strongest commercially available fibers, Zylon and Dyneema, also used in bullet-proof vests". The lone really strong fiber  endured about 150 % of the strength of these, nine gigapascals of stress -far beyond any other reported material - before breaking.

In a video caption that follows the information from TR, the manufacturing method indeed looks as if the fiber would be very uneven in thickness and eventually also quality; thus also the usable pieces of the fiber are relatively short. If the manufacturing variation can be brought down and close to the upper end of the spectrum, this promises for an extremely lightweight (fiber wall thickness is that of just one layer of atoms!) and durable material with possible applications ranging "from body armor to oil drilling". I'd personally like to have a motorbiking helmet that would be lighter on my aging neck in highway speeds.

Greenhouse gas plastics

Carbon dioxide is mostly talked about in the context of global warming. Carbon dioxide can however also be used as a raw material for biodegradeable plastics called aliphatic polycarbonates.The idea itself is not new, having first been developed in 1969, but it has taken nearly four decades to make the product viable for commercial use. Now, according to the MIT Technology Review, the product is reaching the levels of maturity required for making something good of it.

According to the latest web issue of TR, "The Cornell University spinoff's technology centers on a catalyst that converts carbon dioxide into a polymer that could be used to make everyday items such as packaging, cups, and forks. The plastic, which was originally created by Cornell chemist Geoffrey Coates, is also safe and strong enough to be used in medical implants and devices."

A company called Novomer has just received  a relatively big (USD 6.6 million) venture capital injection to scale up its manufacturing capacity utilizing epoxites, carbon dioxide, and a new type of metallic catalyst developed by Coates that allows the process to run in room temperatures and low pressure, conditions that are required for economic manufacturing. The new zinc-based catalyst is said to be efficient enough to make production of this new type of plastics an economically viable business.

Earlier this year (April) TR also reported that the chemists at University of California San Diego and Queen's University in Ontario have shown that it is, with the right catalyst, also at least theoretically possible to turn carbon dioxide into gasoline. The environmental benefits of either innovation would probably emerge only from very large-scale operations, but are worth studying further.

Merck Serono and EPFL announce Research Partnership in Neuroscience, Oncology and Drug Delivery

First Allergan. EPFL does it again!!

Merck Serono and EPFL announce Research Partnership in Neuroscience, Oncology and Drug Delivery: "

Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, and EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), one of the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, announced today the signing of a research collaboration agreement in the areas of Neuroscience, Oncology and Drug Delivery. Under this agreement, three Merck Serono-endowed Chairs will be created at EPFL: in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson’s; in cancer, in the framework of the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC); and in innovative drug delivery technologies, for instance nanoparticle vaccines.

Category: Press
Date: 31 Oct 2007

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(Via AlphaGalileo Technology Channel.)