Carbon Nanotechnologies, Inc. Licenses Production Process To DuPont - Brings Carbon Nanotechnology Closer To Commercial Reality

Market Wire, 20050229

Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc. (CNI) today announced agreement for DuPont Central Research & Development (CR&D) to license CNI's patented laser-oven buckytube production process for use in the area of field emission flat panel displays. DuPont CR&D, working with DuPont Displays, will use the buckytubes (single-wall carbon nanotubes) produced by this specialized process to allow a new generation of flat panel displays. The laser oven process is one of four primary routes to produce buckytubes for which CNI has the critical technology.

"Buckytubes are cylindrical carbon molecules that are one billionth of a meter in diameter, conduct electricity better than copper, conduct heat better than diamond and have tensile strength more than 100 times that of steel, yet are lightweight," said Bob G. Gower, president, CNI. "As the world's best field-emitter, buckytubes can make many electron-based devices more effective and longer lasting. Their superior characteristics will enable the production of a new class of flat-panel displays that are a few inches thick and more economical than current technology." The new display technology to be employed by DuPont is based on a field-emission phenomenon in which a small voltage pulls out electrons from an emissive thick film containing buckytubes to the display screen, lighting up the screen. Each dot of thick film buckytubes is a small electron gun which are addressed to produce images.

"The DuPont technology with laser-oven-produced buckytubes will provide bright displays that operate at low voltage and consume only a fraction of the power used by conventional televisions or by plasma-panel displays," said Dr. James Romine, Director of Material Science in DuPont CR&D.

CNI was founded in early 2000 to commercialize the scientific breakthroughs in carbon nanotechnology made at Rice University under the direction of Nobel prize-winning scientist Dr. Richard Smalley. CNI, which has headquarters, laboratories and pilot plant facilities in Houston, has the exclusive license for all technology developed by Dr. Smalley at Rice. The company is actively developing new processes and applications for buckytubes in its own laboratories and in those of industrial partners.