SBIR Phase I: Dissolution of Full-Length Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发一种具有成本效益的技术来制备全长单壁碳纳米管（s-l-SWNTs）。这些单壁碳纳米管将通过剥离和非共价官能化在普通有机溶剂中溶解。我们期望开发出一种低成本的溶解工艺，从而实现可溶全长单壁碳纳米管的商业化生产。目前已知的所有全长单壁碳纳米管都不溶于有机溶剂。虽然单壁碳纳米管被认为是终极碳纤维，但可溶全长单壁碳纳米管的发展可以为制备均匀的纳米管基共聚物和聚合物复合材料提供必要的加工能力，其形式包括单体、纤维、薄膜和涂层。这些纳米结构材料的发展有望应用于飞机和航天器的高温、高强度和轻质结构材料；军用飞机和舰船用电磁辐射屏蔽涂料；汽车用抗静电涂料；微电子和光电用有机薄膜器件；用于太空的薄膜锂电池。可溶性单壁碳纳米管是功能纳米结构的通用构件，在分子电子学中有重要应用。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop a cost-effective technology to prepare full-length single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-l-SWNTs). These SWNTs will be soluble in common organic solvents by the exfoliation and noncovalent functionalization of SWNT ropes. We expect to develop a dissolution process that can be scaled up at low cost, thereby enabling commercial production of soluble full-length single-walled carbon nanotubes. All of the currently known full-length SWNTs are insoluble in organic solvents. While single-walled carbon nanotubes are recognized as the ultimate carbon fiber, the development of soluble full-length single-walled carbon nanotubes can provide the necessary processability for the preparation of homogeneous nanotube-based copolymers and polymer composites in the form of monoliths, fibers, films and coatings. The development of these nanostructured materials is expected to enable applications in high temperature, high strength and light-weight structural materials for aircraft and space vehicles; electromagnetic radiation shielding coatings for military aircraft and ships; antistatic coatings for automobile; organic thin film devices for micro-electronics and -optoelectronics; thin film lithium batteries for space. Soluble individual single-walled carbon nanotubes are versatile building blocks for functional nanostructures which may find important application in molecular electronics.