Nanotubes: Directions and Technologies

SUMMARY

OBJECTIVE AND PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT

This report focuses on carbon nanotubes-their technology, production, andapplications. There has been enormous interest in the commercialization ofnanotubes for both near and distant applications and several of theseapplications will be successful shortly.

Nanotubes, cylinders of carbon atoms with diameters ranging from 1 nm to 300nm, are some of the strongest, stiffest materials known. Furthermore, thesematerials are either conductors or semi-conductors, depending on their structureand environment. Nanotubes have some physical properties that have nocounterpart in macroscopic materials.

With advances in synthetic techniques and the ability to characterizematerials readily on an atomic scale, interest has been piqued in nanometer-sizematerials. Since nanometer-size grains, cylinders, and plates have dramaticallyincreased surface areas compared to their conventional-size materials, thechemistry of these nano-size materials is altered compared to conventionalmaterials.

Macroscopic carbon compounds, such as diamond and graphite, have been knownfor centuries. These two forms of carbon compounds have been used in variousapplications ranging from lubricants to wear-resistant coatings. Although thesematerials have been available for many years, new applications of thesematerials are still being discovered today. It is clear that both graphite anddiamond are economically important materials.

For many years it was thought that graphite and diamond represented the onlytwo stable forms of carbon-only compounds. Thus, it came as quite a surprisewhen Richard Smalley and coworkers at Rice University in 1985 announced thediscovery of a new form of carbon compound. These carbon compounds were called"fullerenes," or "buckyballs," after Buckminster Fuller.Buckminster Fuller is best known for developing the geodesic dome, and the newcarbon compounds greatly resembled these domes, albeit at an atomic level. Thefirst fullerenes to be characterized consisted of 60 carbon atoms arranged likea soccer ball.

Since the two known forms of carbon, diamond and graphite, have proven to bevery useful materials, it was hoped that fullerenes would prove valuable aswell. Unfortunately, although these compounds stirred a great deal of interest,their primary value to date has been for academic researchers, who have receivedinnumerable grants to study these compounds. No applications to take advantageof these molecules' structures have been developed, although there is still agreat deal of research being carried out on drug delivery systems.

In the past decade, Iijima at NEC discovered a similar type of molecule, afullerene that which was cylindrical rather than spherical. These cylindricalfullerenes have a much wider range of potential applications compared to thespherical molecules, and already these compounds have been used in some limitedapplications.

While it is impossible to make a wire out of a sphere, cylinders are anothermatter. Characterization of the fullerene cylinders, soon termed "nanotubes,"showed that there were a range of conductivities of these molecules. Therefore,it was theoretically possible to use nanotubes to produce wires that were ordersof magnitude smaller and lighter than anything previously technologicallypossible. Cylinders can also be used to make fibers or construct weaves ormesh-something that cannot be accomplished with spheres. Thus, nanotubes arereally much more versatile than the first buckyballs, and are being studied fora much broader range of applications.

This report summarizes the status of nanotube production and technology. Italso covers the applications for these nanotubes and estimates their possiblefuture markets. Armed with this information, readers with business interests canthen make sound judgements regarding marketing strategies, investment decisions,or strategic plans concerning the market for nanotubes. This report has beenwritten to be readily accessible for those readers with a business background,but accuracy concerning the technical aspects of nanotube manufacture andapplications has not been sacrificed.

REASONS FOR THIS STUDY

While there has been much ballyhoo in the popular press concerning thewonders of nanotubes, it is difficult to get solid information on how much ofthese nanotubes are being produced and sold. Furthermore, many articles havepresented wildly misleading information concerning these materials' manufacture,markets, and applications. This report offers a timely picture of trends fornanotubes that cannot be obtained from other sources.

CONTRIBUTION OF THE STUDY

This report shows the current (negligible) size and the future size of thenanotubes market in the U.S. and globally. Since research on nanotubes is beingdone worldwide, this report covers developments in all regions of the world.However, there are large sums of money being appropriated for nanotube researchby Congress; thus, the U.S. will be one of the countries at the forefront ofnanotube research and development for some years to come. Readers of this reportwill be able to distinguish the hype concerning the uses of nanotubes from thereality of the market. A number of the potentially significant markets ofnanotubes have received relatively little press, and many of the publishedarticles concerning the uses of these materials do not provide an accuratepicture. This report will also show what applications are achievable without anynew breakthroughs in production methodology of nanotubes, and what applicationsrequire nanotubes to be produced much less expensively.

SCOPE AND FORMAT

In order to generate the information necessary to construct a reasonablefuture market for nanotubes, it is necessary to take a hardheaded look at thepotential advantages and pitfalls of these materials. However, given the novelapplications of nanotubes, it can be difficult to compare these materials tomore conventional macroscopic materials. Furthermore, nanotubes do offer thepossibility of revolutionary, rather than evolutionary developments in manyproduct applications.

While many applications of nanotubes are clearly not going to happen in thenext decade (especially the highly touted replacement of silicon in integratedcircuits), this does not mean that there will be no applications of nanotubes inother markets. Thus, this report focuses on near-term potential applications ofnanotubes, rather than applications that require major technological leaps, suchas micro-electromechanical (MEM) applications or other electronic applicationsof nanotubes. Therefore, applications of nanotube materials that are possiblewithin 5 to 10 years are discussed.

The report is broken into six sections. First there is a technology overviewthat gives the broad details of nanotubes, along with some of their physicalproperties and methods of manufacture. Next there is an extensive description ofthe industry that is developing the manufacturing capability for nanotubes.Firms that are developing applications for nanotubes include automotivemanufacturers, chemical firms, electronic manufacturers, display firms, andothers. These firms are described in the section on company profiles. Followingthis section on industry structure is a brief description of the government andacademic laboratories that have been doing extensive research in nanotubes,after which there is a description of nanotubes by type, followed by adescription of the markets for nanotubes, including future trends. The reportconcludes with a section on the patents that have been filed pertaining tonanotubes.

METHODOLOGY AND SOURCES OF INFORMATION

This report is the end result of four months of concerted effort by theauthor. The primary sources of information for writing this report came frominterviews with several dozen people in industry, academia, and the government.The author also attended meetings and conferences, and much precious insight wasgained from these sources as well. Many of the people interviewed are recognizedauthorities in the field and provided invaluable assistance, and the authorwould like to thank all who took the time to offer their help with this project.Secondary sources used for this report include a number of publications by thefederal government, plus items gleaned from the Internet, corporate literature,and publications in the peer-reviewed literature.

Anytime an estimate for a number has been made, the underlying assumptionsare discussed. Thus, if the reader chooses to interpret the raw data in adiffering manner, it is possible to do so. Dollar amounts are in constant 1999dollars, and average annual growth rates (AAGR%) are calculated using standardtables.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Title
• INTRODUCTION
• OBJECTIVE AND PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT
• REASONS FOR THIS STUDY
• CONTRIBUTION OF THE STUDY
• SCOPE AND FORMAT