Project 1: Dispersion and cutting of carbon nanotubes

NANO FRONTIER TECHNOLOGY has succeeded in dispersing and cutting carbon nanotubes.
Carbon nanotubes manufactured in large quantities by the CVD method or arc discharge method generally have lots of large aggregation. When mixed in resin, metal, ceramics, rubber, etc. in this state, various problems and demerit are occurred;
　
(1) Expected characteristics cannot be obtained by adding a small amount of CNT.
(2) Uniform characteristics cannot be obtained due to the difference between the aggregated part and the dispersed part.
(3) Destruction of composite material occurs from the aggregated part.
(4) The base material properties are lost due to the addition of a large amount of CNT.
(5) Addition of a large amount of CNT makes it an expensive material.
　
When carbon nanotubes are used in composite materials, dispersing these aggregates is the key to achieving excellent properties. NANO FRONTIER TECHNOLOGY has succeeded in dispersing carbon nanotubes using a unique method. We can also cut the CNT to any length depending on the application.
Conventional dispersion / cutting methods include ultra-strong ultrasonic waves and laser processing, but they require a long processing time and are not suitable for mass processing. There are also methods such as ball mills and beads mills, but there are concerns about contamination of balls and beads.
At NANO FRONTIER TECHNOLOGY, it is possible to CNT dispersion process easily and inexpensively in a short time.

Dispersion case study

In the future, we are considering applications in the following fields, and will proceed with joint research with universities and companies with the aim of developing high-performance composite materials.

Project 2: Development of metal oxide composite coatings for solar receivers in CSP plants with the highest absorption, highest durability in the world.

NANO FRONTIER TECHNOLOGY has succeeded in developing an absorber coating for Concentrated Solar Power systems (CSP) plants with the world’s highest absorption and long-term high temperature durability by combining titanium oxide and metal oxide particles.

This coating material is composed of metal oxide (black pigments) and TiO2. The black pigment coated with the titanium precursor bonds firmly when titanium crystallized by pyrolysis. Micro-structure pores were created by spraying multiple times. These pores improve spectral absorptance.

This graph shows the spectral absorptance of coated on the Stainless Steel 253MA substrate in pristine state and after aging at 850℃.
The developed coating (NFT Sample) exhibits high absorption in a wide wavelength range.
The absorption decreased slightly after 10 hours of aging, but it remained almost unchanged after 100 hours of aging, maintaining a high absorption. The reduction in solar-weighted absorptance from pristine state is only 0.49% even after 100 hours aging at 850℃.
On the other hand, the absorption of the existing coating (Pyromark) dropped significantly after aging for 10 hours. The reduction in solar-weighted absorptance from pristine state is 2.75% after 10 hours aging at 850℃, and finally failed after 100 hours aging.
The same heat resistance results have been obtained after aging test at 850℃ even coated on the Stainless Steel 316L substrates and Inconel substrates.

There is no other solar absorber coating in the world that has both high long-term heat resistance at high temperature and high absorption.

We are currently developing a large-scale coating. In the near future, we will provide this coating with high performance for receivers of tower solar thermal power generation and dish solar thermal power generation, which are especially high temperature specifications.

Project 3: Development of CNT composite coatings with the highest absorption in the world.

The developed coating exhibits high light absorption characteristics in a wide wavelength range from ultraviolet to near infrared.

As a result of measuring the temperature of the substrate by irradiating a xenon lamp, the developed coating shows a higher temperature than the existing coating in proportion to the light absorption characteristics. This result indicate that developed coating absorbs more light than existing coating and has a greater power to convert it into heat.

In the future, in addition to heat collectors for solar hot water and receiver coating for solar thermal power generation, we would like to expand this technology to waste heat absorption, black coating, heat dissipation materials, etc.