Large-scale solvent-free functionalisation of carbon nanotubes

由于其独特的性质，碳纳米管在从先进的聚合物复合材料到电池电极的广泛应用中是关键的使能材料。它们已经大量生产，市场正在迅速增长。然而，为了优化其加工和性能，有必要对其表面进行化学修饰。目前的化学技术缓慢、浪费，而且通常是小规模操作；它们从根本上不适合CVD纳米管的工业化生产，那里的工厂产能往往在100吨pa左右。我们已经开发了一种多功能、快速和清洁的纳米管修改方法，我们认为这种方法具有内在的可扩展性，并与现有的纳米管生产设施兼容。拟议的项目将展示这种可伸缩性，并提供具有一系列增值特性的改性纳米管样品。选择这些例子既是为了满足现有纳米管用户的需求，也是为了刺激依赖于比目前可用的更大数量的改性纳米管的新市场。有了这些概念验证数据，我们的专利技术将被利用，以创造基于纳米管的新一代产品。

Due to their unique properties, carbon nanotubes are critical enabling materials in a wide range of applications, ranging from advanced polymer composites, to battery electrodes. They are already produced in tonne quantities and the market is growing rapidly. However, in order to optimise their processing and performance it is necessary to modify their surface chemically. Current chemical techniques are slow, wasteful, and typically operate at a small scale; they are fundamentally ill-suited to the industrial production of CVD nanotubes where plant capacity is often on the order of 100 tonnes pa. We have developed a versatile, rapid, and clean approach to nanotube modification that we believe to be inherently scalable and compatible with existing nanotube production facilities. The proposed project will demonstrate this scalability and provide samples of modified nanotubes with a range of value-adding properties. These examples will be selected both to satisfy the requirements of existing nanotube users, and to stimulate new markets that depend on larger volumes of modified nanotubes than are currently available. With this proof-of-concept data in place, our patented technology will be exploited in order to create a new generation of nanotube-based products.