High Throughput Screening of High Efficiency Catalysts for Carbon Nanotube

We will leverage our unique expertise in high throughput screening technologies to develop highly efficient catalyst compositions that will deliver high quality nanotube at lowest possible cost in Phase I. Currently there is little knowledge and prediction power on advanced catalyst composition for making nanotubes. Fe, Co, Ni metals are still commonly used as nanotube catalyst, whose catalytic properties are known to be limited. Over 10,000 complex alloy compositions will be searched for synthesizing carbon nanotubes. We have recently demonstrated that high throughput screening is highly effective in searching advanced nanotube catalysts. The successful discovery of a highly efficient catalyst from phase I will enable us to meet the cost target of producing high quality carbon nanotube for less than $100/Kg in phase II. The low cost production of nanotube in Phase II will enable the broad proliferation of nanotube materials into advanced composites as described previously in Phase III.