An Idaho manufacturer of advanced materials has scored a breakthrough in nanotube manufacturing by producing uncontaminated, high purity single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) at a very high production rate.
Idaho Space Materials (ISM), headquartered in Boise, has been able to produce the nanotube material without harmful metal contaminants, while achieving high production rates.
The ability to create SWCNTs without metal catalysts, will allow the nanotubes to be more commercially viable, since metal contamination results in toxicity or has a harmful effect on the nanotube's useful characteristics such as electrical conductivity and high tensile strength.
ISM's process also eliminates the costly and time-consuming problem of having to remove the metal contamination.