572results about "Specific nanostructure formation" patented technology

The present invention provides methods and assembly units for the construction of nanostructures. Assembly of nanostructures proceeds by sequential, non-covalent, vectorial addition of an assembly unit to an initiator or nanostructure intermediate during an assembly cycle, a process termed "staged assembly." Attachment of each assembly unit is mediated by specific, non-covalent binding of a single pre-determined joining element of one assembly unit to a complementary joining element on a target initiator or nanostructure intermediate. Each interaction of a joining element is designed such that the joining element does not interact with any other joining element of the assembly unit. Self-association of the assembly unit is therefore obviated: only one assembly unit can be added at a time to a target initiator or nanostructure intermediate.

The present invention relates to covalently bonded fullerene-functionalized carbon nanotubes (CBFFCNTs), a method and an apparatus for their production and to their end products. CBFFCNTs are carbon nanotubes with one or more fullerenes or fullerene based molecules covalently bonded to the nanotube surface. They are obtained by bringing one or more catalyst particles, carbon sources and reagents together in a reactor.

This invention provides an aligned single-layer carbon nanotube bulk structure, which comprises an assembly of a plurality of aligned single-layer carbon nanotube and has a height of not less than 10 μm, and an aligned single-layer carbon nanotube bulk structure which comprises an assembly of a plurality of aligned single-layer carbon nanotubes and has been patterned in a predetermined form. This structure is produced by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of carbon nanotubes in the presence of a metal catalyst in a reaction atmosphere with an oxidizing agent, preferably water, added thereto. An aligned single-layer carbon nanotube bulk structure, which has realized high purify and significantly large scaled length or height, its production process and apparatus, and its applied products are provided.

This invention provides an aligned single-layer carbon nanotube bulk structure, which comprises an assembly of a plurality of aligned single-layer carbon nanotube and has a height of not less than 10 μm, and an aligned single-layer carbon nanotube bulk structure which comprises an assembly of a plurality of aligned single-layer carbon nanotubes and has been patterned in a predetermined form. This structure is produced by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of carbon nanotubes in the presence of a metal catalyst in a reaction atmosphere with an oxidizing agent, preferably water, added thereto. An aligned single-layer carbon nanotube bulk structure, which has realized high purify and significantly large scaled length or height, its production process and apparatus, and its applied products are provided.

An apparatus of the present invention for producing an aligned carbon-nanotube aggregate is an apparatus for producing an aligned carbon-nanotube aggregate by synthesizing the aligned carbon-nanotube aggregate on a base material having a catalyst on a surface thereof, the apparatus including: a formation unit that processes a formation step of causing an environment surrounding the catalyst to be an environment of a reducing gas and heating at least either the catalyst or the reducing gas; a growth unit that processes a growth step of synthesizing the aligned carbon-nanotube aggregate by causing the environment surrounding the catalyst to be an environment of a raw material gas and by heating at least either the catalyst or the raw material gas; and a transfer unit that transfers the base material at least from the formation unit to the growth unit. Thus provided is a production apparatus and a production method that are capable of improving efficiency in the production of aligned CNT aggregates by preventing a decrease in production volume and deterioration in quality of aligned CNT aggregates in serial production and by making it easy to increase the size of the apparatus.

The diameter of carbon nanotubes grown by chemical vapor deposition is controlled independent of the catalyst size by controlling the residence time of reactive gases in the reactor.

The present invention relates to a process of producing composite materials by a sol / gel-process, comprising carbon nanoparticles and organic polymer material. The invention further relates to composite materials, which are manufactured with the use of said sol / gel technology.

An apparatus of the present invention for producing an aligned carbon-nanotube aggregate is an apparatus for producing an aligned carbon-nanotube aggregate by synthesizing the aligned carbon-nanotube aggregate on a base material having a catalyst on a surface thereof, the apparatus including: a formation unit that processes a formation step of causing an environment surrounding the catalyst to be an environment of a reducing gas and heating at least either the catalyst or the reducing gas; a growth unit that processes a growth step of synthesizing the aligned carbon-nanotube aggregate by causing the environment surrounding the catalyst to be an environment of a raw material gas and by heating at least either the catalyst or the raw material gas; and a transfer unit that transfers the base material at least from the formation unit to the growth unit. Thus provided is a production apparatus and a production method that are capable of improving efficiency in the production of aligned CNT aggregates by preventing a decrease in production volume and deterioration in quality of aligned CNT aggregates in serial production and by making it easy to increase the size of the apparatus.

An apparatus is provided for growing high aspect ratio emitters (26) on a substrate (13). The apparatus comprises a housing (10) defining a chamber and includes a substrate holder (12) attached to the housing and positioned within the chamber for holding a substrate having a surface for growing the high aspect ratio emitters (26) thereon. A heating element (17) is positioned near the substrate and being at least one material selected from the group consisting of carbon, conductive cermets, and conductive ceramics. The housing defines an opening (15) into the chamber for receiving a gas into the chamber for forming the high aspect ratio emitters (26).

This invention relates to a method of manufacturing a graphene or graphene oxide / nanoparticle hybrid material and a graphene / nanoparticle hybrid material manufactured thereby, wherein the hybrid material can be easily, rapidly and eco-friendly synthesized while minimizing the use of chemicals and thermal treatment because of electrostatic self-assembly properties of a biomaterial. This method includes preparing nanoparticles, a biomaterial solution and a graphene oxide solution, mixing the nanoparticles with the biomaterial solution to form biomaterial-coated nanoparticles, mixing the biomaterial-coated nanoparticles with the graphene oxide solution to obtain a graphene oxide / nanoparticle hybrid material, and reducing the graphene oxide / nanoparticle hybrid material to obtain a graphene / nanoparticle hybrid material.

A vacuum chamber includes a radical beam irradiation part and a nanoparticle beam irradiation part. A substrate is held by a substrate holding part. The nanoparticle beam irradiation part irradiates the substrate with a beam of metal nanoparticles serving as a catalyst to form the catalyst on the substrate. Thereafter, the radical beam irradiation part generates a plasma from a source gas to irradiate the substrate with a beam of generated neutral radical species to grow a carbon nanotube on the substrate. The provision of an aperture in the radical beam irradiation part allows a relatively high degree of vacuum of 10−5 Torr to 10−3 Torr to be maintained in the vacuum chamber if the generation of the plasma involves a high pressure.

A process for producing a carbon nanomaterial, including fluidizing a carbon raw material, a catalyst and a fluidizing material in a fluidized bed reactor to produce the carbon nanomaterial, wherein the fluidizing material is a carbon material. A carbon nanomaterial production system for producing a carbon nanomaterial including a fluidized bed reactor for fluidizing a car-bon raw material, a catalyst and a fluidizing material to carry out the reaction thereof, a carbon raw material feeding device for feeding the carbon raw material to the fluidized bed reactor, a catalyst feeding device for feeding the catalyst to the fluidized bed reactor, and a recovering device for recovering the produced carbon nanomaterial from the fluidized bed reactor, wherein a part of the recovered carbon nanomaterial is transferred to the catalyst feeding device and used as the fluidizing material.

Disclosed is a method for fabricating graphene ribbons which are high-functional carbon materials. Provided a method of fabricating graphene ribbons, including (a) preparing a carbon structure in which a graphene ribbon is spirally grown (a graphene helix), revealing a tube shape, and (b) applying energy to unroll the graphene helix into the graphene ribbons.

A carbon nanosphere has at least one opening. The carbon nanosphere is obtained by preparing a carbon nanosphere and treating it with an acid to form the opening. The carbon nanosphere with at least one opening has higher utilization of a surface area and electrical conductivity and lower mass transfer resistance than a conventional carbon nanotube, thus allowing for higher current density and cell voltage with a smaller amount of metal catalyst per unit area of a fuel cell electrode.

An optically transparent and electrically conductive single walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) film comprises a plurality of interpenetrated single walled carbon nanotubes, wherein for a 100 nm film the film has sufficient interpenetration to provide a 25° C. sheet resistance of less than 200 ohm / sq. The film also provides at least 20% optical transmission throughout a wavelength range from 0.4 μm to 5 μm.

A method is described for building a mechanosynthesis tool intended to be used for the molecularly precise fabrication of physical structures—as for example, diamond structures. An exemplar tool consists of a bulk-synthesized dimer-capped triadamantane tooltip molecule which is initially attached to a deposition surface in tip-down orientation, whereupon CVD or equivalent bulk diamond deposition processes are used to grow a large crystalline handle structure around the tooltip molecule. The large handle with its attached tooltip can then be mechanically separated from the deposition surface, yielding an integral finished tool that can subsequently be used to perform diamond mechanosynthesis in vacuo. The present disclosure is the first description of a complete tool for positional diamond mechanosynthesis, along with its method of manufacture. The same toolbuilding process may be extended to other classes of tooltip molecules, other handle materials, and to mechanosynthetic processes and structures other than those involving diamond.

The invention relates to imparting surfaces with nanometer sized structures that provide bactericidal properties to the surface and devices. In one embodiment, the present invention provides a bactericidal surface with nanometer sized pillars created by imprinting a softened polymer surface with a mold. In another embodiment, the nanometer sized pillars are part of a medical device with antibacterial properties.

An anisotropically elongated thermoelectric nanocomposite includes a thermoelectric material.

Provided is a method of forming a micropattern according to an aspect of the present invention. The method of forming a micropattern may include forming an organic wire or organic-inorganic hybrid wire mask pattern having a circular or elliptical cross section on a substrate, forming a material layer on an entire surface of the substrate having the organic wire or organic-inorganic hybrid wire mask pattern formed thereon, and removing the organic wire or organic-inorganic hybrid wire mask pattern from the substrate to allow only the material layer on a portion of the substrate having no organic wire or organic-inorganic hybrid wire mask pattern formed thereon to be remained.

The present invention relates to a process for preparing CNTs by bringing a carbon source into contact with a multivalent metal and / or metal-oxide-based catalyst deposited on an inorganic substrate having a BET specific surface area of greater than 50 m2 / g. The CNTs obtained may be used as agents for improving the mechanical and electrical conductivity properties in polymeric compositions.

It relates to high purity single-walled carbon nanotubes having controlled diameter, useful as industrial materials, including high-strength carbon wire rods, particularly uniform single-walled carbon nanotubes having diameter fallen in a range of from 1.0 to 2.0 nm, and a method for producing the same efficiently, in large amount and inexpensively. The single-walled carbon nanotube obtained is characterized in that its diameter is fallen in a range of from 1.0 to 2.0 nm, and an intensity ratio IG / ID between G-band and D-band in a Raman spectrum is 200 or more. Furthermore, those single-walled carbon nanotubes are synthesized by a gas-phase flow CVD method that uses a saturated aliphatic hydrocarbon which is liquid at ordinary temperature as a first carbon source and an unsaturated aliphatic hydrocarbon which is gas at ordinary temperature as a second carbon source.

The invention discloses a method for preparing a dispersant-free semi-conductive single-walled carbon nanotube film. The method comprises steps as follows: a single-walled carbon nanotube and a conjugated polymer dispersant are dispersed in an organic solvent I together, and a dispersion solution I is prepared; the dispersion solution I is subjected to centrifugal treatment, supernatant liquor is collected and filtered, and a semi-conductive single-walled carbon nanotube with the surface coated with a dispersant is obtained; an organic solvent II is provided, and the semi-conductive single-walled carbon nanotube with the surface coated with the conjugated polymer dispersant is washed; an organic solvent III is provided, the washed semi-conductive single-walled carbon nanotube is dispersed, and a dispersion solution II is prepared; the dispersion solution II is applied to a substrate I, and the dispersant-free semi-conductive single-walled carbon nanotube film is obtained. Compared with the prior art, the dispersant-free semi-conductive single-walled carbon nanotube film prepared with the method can show intrinsic performance of the single-walled carbon nanotube and is suitable for preparation of a high-performance carbon nanotube film semi-conductor device.

Small structures are formed by applying to a substrate a structural material and a layer of a sacrificial material having a lower surface energy than the structural material, to form an intermediate product. The substrate is then heated to a temperature at which the sacrificial material evaporates or sublimes and the structural material is mobilized. The sacrificial material is permitted to evaporate or sublime, an area of the substrate covered by the sacrificial material to diminish, and the structural material to agglomerate on the remaining sacrificial material to form a structure.

The present invention relates to a process of producing composite materials by a sol / gel-process, comprising carbon nanoparticles and organic polymer material. The invention further relates to composite materials, which are manufactured with the use of said sol / gel technology.

In one aspect, the present invention provides nano-scale heaters, such as nano-scale thermoacoustic loudspeakers comprising suspended metal nanobridges prepared using atomic layer deposition (ALD). The loudspeakers of the invention are capable of producing audible sound when stimulated with an electrical current or other energetic stimulus. In another aspect, the present invention provides methods of preparing and using such nanodevices.

Disclosed is a method of preparing a metal oxide-graphene nanocomposite, including preparing a nanocomposite material, forming graphene flakes by pretreating the nanocomposite material, and hydrothermally synthesizing the pretreated nanocomposite material. A method of manufacturing an electrode using the metal oxide-graphene nanocomposite is also provided. According to this invention, the metal oxide-graphene nanocomposite is synthesized from inexpensive graphite through one-step processing using only a surfactant, in place of conventional methods using oxidants, reductants and high-temperature heat, thereby lowering the number of processing steps and processing costs. Also, in the fabrication of the electrode, low electrical resistance characteristic of graphene is applied as it is, in place of the conventional use of active material, conductive material and binder, thereby exhibiting desired processing efficiency without the addition of the conductive material. Furthermore, highly pure graphene is prepared in a short time and various metal oxide active materials suitable for use in energy storage devices, for example, unary, binary, and multicomponent metal oxides, is formed through one-step processing, and necessary oxides having desired weight ratios {cobalt oxide (CoO), tricobalt tetraoxide (Co3O4), and cobalt hydroxide [Co(OH)2]} can be easily prepared, and thus very wide application ranges (secondary batteries, gas sensors, etc.) are expected.

A method for manufacturing a carbon nanotube assembly including the steps of: forming metallic fine particles, having a predetermined particle diameter, on a substrate; heating the metallic fine particles to a predetermined temperature of 300° C. to 400° C. in a reducing atmosphere to cause reduction at surfaces thereof; heating the metallic fine particles to a predetermined reaction temperature in a reactor; and introducing an organic compound vapor into the reactor to grow carbon nanotubes on the metallic fine particles in such a way that a time during which the temperature of the metallic fine particles exceeds 450° C. is 600 seconds or fewer for the period of time before the growth of the carbon nanotubes is started after the heating of the metallic fine particles is started.