Article by Mobile Maiden

A team of scientists at the University of Illinois has possibly discovered a way to make cell phone batteries that don’t need charging for months at a time. The team believes their method will enable mobile phone and laptop batteries to last up to 100 times longer. According to Stephen Adams, The Telegraph, it focuses on changing the way a device’s digital memory works, as this consumes much of the charge. Feng Xiong, a graduate student on the team who was lead author on a paper, to be published in the journal Science, explained: “The energy consumption is essentially scaled with the volume of the memory bit. By using nanoscale contacts, we are able to achieve much smaller power consumption.”

Carbon Nanotubes Make Lighter, More Powerful Cell Phone Batteries

Another team at MIT is doing similar research. The discovery could lead to a new way of producing electricity, the researchers say. The main factor is again carbon nanotubes, submicroscopic hollow tubes made of a honeycomb lattice of carbon atoms. According to an article by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office, “Like a collection of flotsam propelled along the surface by waves traveling across the ocean, it turns out that a thermal wave — a moving pulse of heat — traveling along a microscopic wire can drive electrons along, creating an electrical current. The phenomenon, described as thermopower waves, “opens up a new area of energy research, which is rare,” says Michael Strano, MIT’s Charles and Hilda Roddey Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, who was the senior author of a paper describing the new findings that appeared in Nature Materials on March 7. The lead author was Wonjoon Choi, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering.”

Carbon nanotubes? It sounds like something out of a science fiction

Carbon nanotubes are minuscule allotropes of carbon having sizes to the scale of nanometers. Their physical, electrical, and thermal properties make them special material for a number of applications. CNTs have very high tensile strength, excellent electrical conductivity, and the ability to bear high working temperatures. However, notwithstanding some challenges like high cost of production and integration issues, the CNT application markets have made great breakthroughs and enabled nanotechnology to become one of the most sought-after technologies to have made a huge impact on a wide range of applications such as electronics, medicine, aerospace, defense, automotives, energy, construction, etc. With some of the big producers stepping up their production capacities, the prices of CNTs are bound to come down and this will induce a spiral effect on the application areas; thereby pushing up the demand for CNTs. With extensive research regarding CNT being carried out by almost all the leading companies in the above mentioned application areas, the challenges for integration of CNT will eventually loosen out and in a nutshell, it would be said that carbon nanotubes are the hottest nanomaterial in the time to come.

All the major types of carbon nanotubes such as single-walled and multi-walled have been covered in depth in this report. Their production and pricing trends and forecast have been included. As this report focuses mainly on the major application areas of carbon nanotubes, we have included all the current possible application areas such as electronics and semiconductors, chemicals and polymers, batteries and capacitors, fuel cells, medical applications, advanced materials, defense, and others.

We have further divided these major applications areas into sub-segments that include field emission displays, sensors, hydrogen storage, lithium-ion batteries, fuel cell, solar PV cells, drug delivery, sporting goods, airframe and components, etc. and analyzed these markets with their trends and forecasts. Each of the macro and micro markets include detailed analysis of the market trends and forecast, affecting factors, and their competitive landscape.

We have carried out an in-depth geographic analysis for each of the markets and their sub-segments covering the major regional markets; viz. North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and ROW.

Table Of Contents : 

1 INTRODUCTION 
1.1 KEY TAKE-AWAYS 
1.2 REPORT DESCRIPTION 
1.3 MARKETS COVERED 
1.4 STAKEHOLDERS 
1.5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 
1.5.1 MARKET SIZE 
1.5.2 KEY DATA POINTS TAKEN FROM SECONDARY SOURCES 
1.5.3 KEY DATA POINTS TAKEN FROM PRIMARY SOURCES 
1.5.4 ASSUMPTIONS MADE FOR THIS REPORT 
1.5.5 COMPANIES COVERED DURING PRIMARY RESEARCH 

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

3 MARKET OVERVIEW 
3.1 DEFINING THE GLOBAL CARBON NANOTUBE MARKET 
3.2 BURNING ISSUES 
3.2.1 QUALITY ISSUES 
3.2.2 HIGH CAPITAL COSTS 
3.2.3 PATENTS & IP BLOCKING 
3.3 WINNING IMPERATIVES 
3.3.1 EXPANSION OF NEW PRODUCTION CAPACITIES 
3.3.2 COLLABORATIONS TO DEVELOP NEW APPLICATIONS 
3.4 FACTORS INFLUENCING CNTS MARKET 
3.4.1 DRIVERS 
3.4.1.1 Superior properties 
3.4.1.2 High demand from current & emerging applications 
3.4.1.3 Technology advancements 
3.4.2 RESTRAINTS 
3.4.2.1 High price & processing difficulties 
3.4.2.2 Purification required 
3.4.2.3 Environmental concerns & health risk 
3.4.3 OPPORTUNITIES 
3.4.3.1 Good opportunities in emerging applications 
3.4.3.2 Increasing application areas as prices come down 
3.4.3.3 Emerging economies 
3.5 GLOBAL CARBON NANOTUBES MARKET 
3.5.1 MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS 
3.5.2 GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS 
3.5.3 APPLICATIONS 
3.5.4 MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY 
3.6 FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS 
3.6.1 COMPETITIVE RIVALRY AMONG EXISTING PLAYERS 
3.6.2 THREAT FROM NEW ENTRANTS 
3.6.3 THREAT FROM SUBSTITUTES 
3.6.4 BARGAINING POWER OF SUPPLIERS 
3.6.5 BARGAINING POWER OF BUYERS 
3.7 CARBON NANOTUBE – VALUE CHAIN 
3.8 RAW MATERIAL & PRICE TREND ANALYSIS 
3.8.1 RAW MATERIAL USED FOR MANUFACTURING OF CNTS BY CVD PROCESS 
3.8.2 RAW MATERIAL USED FOR MANUFACTURING OF CNTS BY ARC DISCHARGE PROCESS 
3.8.3 RAW MATERIAL PRICE TRENDS 
3.8.3.1 Graphite 
3.8.3.2 Ethylene 
3.8.3.3 Benzene 
3.9 HEALTH & SAFETY & ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS 
3.9.1 HEALTH & SAFETY ISSUES 
3.9.2 ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 

Carbon Nanotubes with their extraordinary properties in terms of strength, thermal and electrical properties are poised to have a big impact on the future of material sciences, electronics and nanotechnology. Owing to their specialized structures and minute diameter, they can be utilized in the creation of ultra-thin energy storage devices which in today’s world where electronics is getting smaller could redefine the electronics market and replace capacitors and batteries they way we see them now. Research and development around carbon nanotubes is moving ahead yielding new forms, new applications and new material based on this unique structure and we take a look into this breakthrough in science and the innovation that surrounds it as it promises to be a large part or small devices of the future.

Overview

Introduction to Carbon Nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs; also known as buckytubes) are allotropes of carbon with a cylindrical nanostructure. Nanotubes have been constructed with length-to-diameter ratio of up to 132,000,000:1, which is significantly larger than any other material. These cylindrical carbon molecules have novel properties that make them potentially useful in many applications in nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials science, as well as potential uses in architectural fields. They exhibit extraordinary strength and unique electrical properties, and are efficient thermal conductors.

Nanotubes are members of the fullerene structural family, which also includes the spherical buckyballs. The ends of a nanotube might be capped with a hemisphere of the buckyball structure. Their name is derived from their size, since the diameter of a nanotube is on the order of a few nanometers (approximately 1/50,000th of the width of a human hair), while they can be up to 18 centimeters in length (as of 2010). Nanotubes are categorized as single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) and multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs). Click Here to read more…

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