However, researchers are busily developing applications that link enormous numbers of nanotechnology drive particles into larger structures. This has important business implications.

The University of Texas reports that a team at UT Dallas has recently been able to “grow” sheets of carbon nanotubes at high speeds using a revolutionary process. These sheets have many remarkable properties.

They’re transparent. They’re also stronger than steel on a pound-for-pound basis.

The new process “spins out” these sheets at the rate of about 20 feet per minute. By comparison, wool is spun out commercially at the rate of roughly 60 feet per minute.

Here’s how it works: Unlike previous approaches that relied upon the dispersion of carbon nanotubes in liquids, this new approach is dry. Trillions of carbon nanotubes constantly rotate in a coordinated manner, with new ones attaching to the previous part of the sheet in a self-assembling fashion.

Carbon nanotubes are theoretically one of the strongest materials known to man, and may just be the strongest possible in terms of weight-to-strength ratio. They are considered ideal for applications where weight must be minimized, yet intense stresses will be applied to the finished product.

Not only are the sheets both light and strong, they’re also very flexible.

This is particularly important in space and aircraft applications, where minimizing weight is crucial to fuel economy. In years to come, we can expect to begin seeing these sheets molded into coverings and eventually structural components of aircraft and spacecraft.

For example, much as one would wind duct tape around a metal pipe, a thin hollow aluminum tube could be wrapped in a sheet of carbon nanotubes until it approximates the strength of a solid steel strut. The difference is that it would do so at far less total weight.

In addition, these sheets have high electrical conductivity. They could be cut and formed into different shapes and serve as bright light emitting diodes (LEDs). LEDs are already increasingly being deployed as replacements to traditional filament-based bulbs, and this will hasten the transition.

Another exciting potential use is as solar cells. Although the efficiency has apparently yet to be determined, this should offer advantages in the simplicity of the manufacturing process and eventually a very low cost per square foot.

A more exotic use is in making artificial muscles. The University of Texas researchers recently published an article in Science that explored how these carbon nanotubes sheets could be configured to flex without losing electrical conductivity.

Using microwave radiation, the sheets can even be welded between sheets of Plexiglas. This would enable something those of us who live in snowy and icy environments have long desired: A transparent heating element in our car windows.

Down the road, other UT researchers now envision even more exciting applications. For example, Dr. Larry Cauller, associate professor of neuroscience, has tentatively determined that cells will grow on these sheets. In addition to supporting laboratory research, this might solve one of the major challenges in growing artificial organs.

It’s funny how sometimes technologies from diverse areas converge. I recently had dinner in Baltimore with the CEO and lead scientific researcher of Hepalife Technologies (HPLF.OB: OTC BB), a Transformational Technologies Portfolio holding.

The scientist, Mr. Frank Menzler, is quite confident that his research will lead to the world’s first functioning artificial liver. They have the perfect liver cell line. It’s basically immortal, does the same job of purifying blood as human liver cells and is “well-behaved,” meaning that it will grow to cover a scaffold and then stop growing.

So far, so good. The problem, Menzler candidly admitted, was that they haven’t yet found the ideal scaffolding material. I’m guessing that these carbon nanotubes sheets with their flexibility, biocompatibility and durability may be just the ticket.

You can be sure I’ll let the folks at Hepalife know about this breakthrough.

Multiple other possible applications have been identified, including: Batteries, fuel cells and even multifunctional applications in which the sheets can both store energy and provide structural reinforcement. Imagine, for example, a car battery that also serves as a roll bar.

“Rarely is a processing advance so elegantly simple that rapid commercialization seems possible, and rarely does such an advance so quickly enable diverse application demonstrations,” said the Science article’s corresponding author, Dr. Ray Baughman, director of the UTD NanoTech Institute.

The institute is reportedly working with some major corporations and government agencies to bring the technology forward to commercialization. I’ll be watching for small, promising companies to pick up some of these applications and run with them.

To your profitable future,
Jonathan Kolber
May 9, 2007

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Carbon Nanotube Manufacturers was originally featured in the Penny Sleuth.