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. POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS Many commercial applications of carbon nanotube have been found since its recent discovery. Carbon nanotube has unique properties as fillers to make high strength-to-weight composites, and lightweight conductive composites for electromagnetic shielding. Both applications are of great interest to space vehicles for NASA. However, its prohibitively high cost has deterred broad commercial applications in these areas. We will address this critical issue in this project using the low cost pyrolytic production of nanotube, which will cut the current production cost of carbon nanotube by three orders of magnitude. The key to reach our cost target of $100/Kg using pyrolytic method is the highly efficient catalyst. This catalyst will make high quality carbon nanotube with high conversion ratio and less demanding processing conditions. The existing catalysts are not efficient in reaching our cost target.
