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Richardson, Texas (February 24, 2003)
Zyvex Corporation today announced the award of a one-year
SBIR program entitled, “Rational Engineering of Carbon
Nanotube Surfaces.” The program’s objective is to
develop a versatile, non-damaging chemistry to engineer carbon
nanotubes (CNTs). Specifically, this work will enable solubility
of CNTs in organic solvents to allow uniform dispersion of
nanotubes in a polymer matrix and hence the enhanced adhesion
of these materials.
The Zyvex team, under the leadership
of the Principal Investigator, Dr. Jian Chen, will develop
an innovative nanotube surface chemistry and demonstrate the
fabrication of uniform nanotube-epoxy composites with enhanced
performance.
“We are extremely proud to
receive this NASA SBIR award,” said John Randall, Ph.D.,
Chief Technology Officer at Zyvex. “Nanocomposites with
carbon nanotubes have been an area of considerable research
and development ever since the excellent electrical and mechanical
properties of carbon nanotubes were demonstrated. Unfortunately,
most efforts have failed to produce superior materials because
of poor dispersion of the nanotubes. Our rational engineering
of nanotube surfaces allows, for the first time, the creation
of CNT nanocomposites that are starting to demonstrate the
potential promise of these materials.”
The current materials research
industry needs to be able to effectively process CNTs in order
to take advantage of their extraordinary material properties
for commercial applications. The NASA award on epoxy nanocomposites
is just one application of Zyvex’s rational engineering
of CNT surfaces.
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