What is Nanotechnology?

Nanotechnology, or, as it is sometimes called, Engineering at the Molecular Level, is a multi-disciplinary area of applied science and engineering that deals with the design and manufacture of extremely small components and systems that smaller than 100 nanometers as showed in picture below.

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What is Nanotube?

Carbon Nanotubes (CNT) is a new class of nano-structure material and allows engineering at the molecular level. It has many surprising properties which can make our customers’ applications lighter, stronger, cheaper, cleaner, more precise, longer lasting, and more efficient. Our business goal is to create as many Unfair Advantages as possible for our customers to differentiate and disrupt competitors to win.

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What are the properties of a CNT?

CNTs exhibit extraordinary mechanical properties. For example, the Young’s modulus is typically over 1 Tera-Pascal along its axis, which is as stiff as diamond. The estimated tensile strength is about 200 GPa, which is an order of magnitude higher than that of any other material (100 times stronger and 6 times lighter than steel).

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What is CNT Starter Kit™?

Ahwahnee Technology offers the Carbon Nanotube Starter Kit™ as part of Ahwahnee’s CNT Toolkit series. The Starter Kit™ enables a CNT beginner to test different types and loadings of CNTs, to achieve maximum performance of structural, electrical, thermal, or chemical properties from test samples, such as ring, plaque, or dog-bone coupons. This work usually takes place prior to actual application development. A small dose of CNTs can improve the mechanical performance of composite materials, but the users will need to determine which of Ahwahnee’s post-growth CNT treatments works best for their application. Therefore, the Kit contains 4 grams of each of three types of MWCNTs: (1) Raw, (2) Purified, and (3) Dispersion-ready bundled. The Starter Kit™ provides proper volumes of these 3 different ingredients for rapid initial experiment turn-around and minimizes development time and cost.

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What is CNT Innovation Kit™?

Ahwahnee Technology offers the Carbon Nanotube Innovation Kit™, as part of Ahwahnee’s CNT Toolkit series, for the CNT Advanced Applications Developer to construct alpha-stage innovative products. The Kit combines Ahwahnee’s materials technology expertise with 4 large 20-gram samples of different CNT’s, to give materials scientists, researchers, and engineers in industrial, laboratory, and academic institutions a development tool box that will enable them to tailor new products and dramatically improve their materials performance, based on experimental results from the Starter Kit above.

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What are the potential applications for CNT?

Ahwahnee has provided the following list of sample products for your reference; please click “More Information” below. CNTs could dramatically improve these products’ efficiencies and functions. This listing is just a sample – there are many, many more applications for CNT technology.

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Do you provide CNT in non-powder form or on substrate?

Yes. Ahwahnee can put it into liquid or mix it with materials that you request. However, there will be some charges for the extra work. Ahwahnee do not provide CNT over substrate(s) since it is more application specific and Ahwahnee only provide it through collaboration.

How do I purchase some CNTs from Ahwahnee Technology?

Please visit our online store to buy it now or contact Ahwahnee Sales department at 408 960-2905 or sales@ahwahneetech.com. Ahwahnee’s sales rep will send you a Safety Consideration document for you to review and sign and then you could proceed with samples or large quantity orders.

I need to make my composite product stronger, would CNT work?

Yes, CNTs are 100 times stronger and 6 times lighter than steel; a small dose of CNTs can improve the intension and extension of composite materials, which clearly creates an unfair advantage for your product over competition. However, you might need to find out the best dispersion agent or mechanism for your product.

I need to make my product electrical conductive, would CNT work?

Yes, CNT’s electrical conductivity is better than Copper. But the actual conductivity result will vary, which depends on the load ratio of CNT into your product.

I need to make my product thermally conductive, would CNT work?

Yes, CNT’s thermal conductivity is better than Diamond. But the actual conductivity result will vary, which depends on the load ratio of CNT into your product.

Can CNT make my product both stronger and conductive?

Yes and No. There is a trade off. Most likely the higher conductivity will reduce the mechanical enhancement. You might need to do some experiments to find out the balance or sweet spot that works for both.

I understand my product very well but not CNT, can we collaborate?

Yes, this might be the most effective way to create your next generation products. Ahwahnee has been successfully working closely with several key customers to develop solutions for their product needs. Note that Ahwahnee Technology is particularly interested in research collaborations for Clean Energy and Environment related applications such as Lighting, Energy Storage, Photovoltaics, and CNT reinforced composites.

How do we proceed with the collaboration?

First of all, you need to contact Ahwahnee Business Development at 408 960-2905 or info@ahwahneetech.com to exchange and sign NDA to protect your interests. Ahwahnee then will work with you to assess your needs, and understand your requirements. If mutual agreed with Ahwahnee’s assessment report, Ahwahnee will sign a collaboration agreement with your company. Note that some assessment fee might be applied to cover traveling and other initial R&D cost if any.

Why are smaller particles important especially for Energy Applications?

Smaller nano-materials provide a higher Surface Area and density which is needed by most energy applications. You could calculate the surface area and volume from this web site: http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/sa_volume/. Smaller nano-materials not only increase Surface Area dramatically for chemical reactions but also reduce defects, are more precise, and allow more efficient use of material and energy

Most energy applications need materials which can provide high conductivity, energy density, and surface area. Ahwahnee’s specially treated MWCNTs have uniform small diameters that are favored by most application developers. Ahwahnee’s Bundled-MWCNT has diameter size of 10.75 ± 3.73 nm and Unbundled –MWCNT has size of 19.21 ± 4.63 nm. Both can provide high conductivity, density, and surface area especially for Fuel Cells and Lithium Battery, etc.

Why are CNT so expensive?

Currently, CNTs are synthesized by several techniques which includes Laser, Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD), Arc Discharge, and Microwave, etc. Most of them can produce a few mini grams a day except CVD. CVD can produce production volume but CVD is an expensive high temperature semiconductor process, which is why CNTs are so costly especially for small quantity orders for laboratory or curiosity experiments. Ahwahnee has spent more than 20 person-years on CVD/CNT process and is one of very few companies today having a most cost-effective production method for Multi-Wall CNT (MWCNT) production. Ahwahnee has committed to make MWCNT affordable and available for large volumes to our value customers.

Is your CNT Computer Modeling software free to download?

Yes, you could download its basic version free by just filling some simple information about yourself. The interactive software allows you to create nano-particle images. Create, view, and even travel inside nanotubes, nanocones, and Bucky balls. Distort them. Spin them. Get a feeling for the nano-scale. However, you have to pay $50 to a third party for the advanced version to cover their cost of contribution in the software.

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Could you share some information about CNT in semiconductor related applications?

A single CNT has been considered as a transistor, which is about 500 times smaller than current transistor; as interconnects or wires in computer chips; as electronic gun to emit electronics for Field Emission Display (FED), and many more other areas.

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What is Field Emission Display (FED)?

A Field Emission Display (FED) is a type of flat panel display using phosphor coatings as the emissive medium. Field emission displays are very similar to cathode-ray-tubes; however they are only a few millimeters thick. Instead of a single electron gun, a FED uses a large array of fine metal tips or carbon nanotubes (which are the most efficient electron emitters known), with many positioned behind each phosphor dot, to emit electrons through a process known as field emission. Because of emitter redundancy, FEDs do not display dead pixels like Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) even if 20% of the emitters fail.

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