Recovery Act - Scaleup of the In-Situ Growth Process for Energy Storage Applications

The subject of this proposal is the large scale production of carbon nanotube based composites, manufactured by the In-Situ Growth (ISG) process, which is being developed by NanoLab, Inc. In the ISG process, composites are made by the chemical vapor deposition of carbon nanotubes within a catalyzed porous media. These composites have structures and properties that cannot be attained by any other process, and NanoLab has demonstrated the ISG process on different types of porous media, each tailored for a specific application. When porous, conductive media (e.g. woven or nonwoven carbon cloth, metallized fibers or foams) are used, the resulting composite can have both high surface area and electrical connectivity, making them excellent electrode materials for energy storage applications. A composite view of an electrode material synthesized by the ISG process is shown in fig. 1. NanoLab has demonstrated the potential of the ISG process for the fabrication of fuel cell, super-capacitor, and battery electrodes. This proposal seeks funding to scale up the ISG process from a batch mode to a continuous roll to roll process.