Carbon nanotubes production line will start operating at Prankor

A carbon nanotubes pilot plant launch is scheduled this autumn at the Prankor. At present, the production line machines are mounted. Sergei V. Pimenov, the Deputy Director General for Economic Affairs, GS Nanotech Company explained to our newspaper what nanotubes are and their application areas as well.

Sergei, please tell us what the carbon nanotubes are.

Carbon nanotubes are artificial carbon fiber. Their peculiarity is manifested when you add a certain number of tubes to a substance: the nanotubes significantly alter its physical properties. For example, the electroplated coating strength is increased three-fold.

Materials electrical conductivity changes abruptly and can exceed the copper conductivity eight times. All this has been proved by experiment.

When did this technology come about?

In fact, the carbon nanotubes were first synthesized in the early 1950s.

Still, they have not been widely used due to the fact that at present the existing production technologies are quite expensive. For instance, a kilogram of these tubes’ costs 2 - 10 thousand dollars. And although the market is estimated to be about $ 700 million, their application scope is very narrow because of the final product high price.

The technology planned to be implemented at Prankor (its author is the Academician S.A. Zhdanok), will significantly reduce the production cost and bring about the prices’ change and cause a broader application of nanotubes. By the way, the output will be 1 kg per hour.

That's interesting. Who is engaged in the nanotubes production in Russia?

In Russia, there are only laboratory facilities. In Belarus, there is experimental equipment at the research institute where the Academician S.A. Zhdanok has worked. Its capacity is 200 grams per hour.

At this point, the main consumers of these products are a variety of research and technology organizations, which need bigger quantities of nanotubes for their experiments. The planned nanotubes production volume at Prankore is to meet these organizations’ needs.

How will nanotubes production be organized at Prankor?

At the first stage, the plan is to introduce the carbon nanotubes in the electroplating and other coating technologies: anodic oxidation, etc. In this regard, at the Prankor, a three parts technological line will operate, which consists of the nanotubes production, sorting and bottling. Five installations with the capacity of 200 g per hour will be integrated into a single complex, and so we will get the 1 kg per hour output we need.

Please, tell us what would be the areas for the carbon nanotubes successful use?

The areas of application are manifold. For example, pipeline gate valves. The existing ones do not survive their normative usage term. The valve service life increases several times, when the carbon nanotubes are used in their production.

Further, concrete and various construction mixes. Nanotubes do increase the strength of these materials.

There is a very broad application range for carbon nanotubes in chemistry. Take, for example, special coatings for ships. Surely, here would be the desired effect. Now, the experiments must be carried out in the shipbuilding industry, and then there will be accurate data.

Development of supercapacitors and a new generation of electrolytes nanostructured carbon based. And even much more.

Again, at present due to the high consumer price carbon nanotubes are not yet fully understood. A series of experiments is needed in various industries, which would allow seeing the economic benefit of their use.

Therefore, the setting up of nanotubes manufacturing at the Prankor plant would naturally create the needed framework for such a research.

Would the Prankor plant cooperate with the Kant BFU in this issue?

Yes, of course. The University has an initiative group engaged in similar studies. So we decided to join forces and create a Research and Development Center, which will undertake the development and production of carbon nanotubes using the Prankor Company base.

Thank you!

This is interesting

A variety of nanostructured carbon materials has been relatively recently discovered. These materials are allotropic (Allotropy - the existence of the same chemical element in the form of two or more simple substances, different in structure and properties. - Editor.) forms of carbon, for which at least one of the linear dimensions is several nanometers. Thus, carbon nanotubes are the closest relatives of diamonds, carbon black, and fashionable graphenes. The unique mechanical properties: high stability, chemical sluggishness, unusual electronic and optical properties of such materials are of a considerable practical interest. Nanotubes are applied in all industrial production branches.

Carbon nanotubes are cylindrical structures with the diameter of one to several tens of nanometers and the length up to several centimeters.

15.07.2011