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US 7,985,394 B2Granted
System and method for manufacturing carbon nanotubes
OwnerGideon Duvallinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for manufacturing carbon nanotubes via epitaxial growth from a source of supersaturated carbon solution is disclosed, whereby selection of the diameter, length, and chirality of single-walled or multi-walled nanotubes is enabled.
Claims19
A method of manufacturing a carbon nanotube comprising the steps of:
- creating a flux melt;
- supplying carbon to said flux melt to create a carbon saturated flux melt;
- creating a supersaturated portion of said flux melt;
- and
- contacting a pre-selected seed carbon nanotube with said supersaturated portion of said flux melt such that one or more carbon atoms bond to said seed carbon nanotube.
2 more elements
A method of manufacturing a plurality of carbon nanotubes comprising the steps of:
- creating a plurality of carbon supersaturated portions of at least one flux melt;
- contacting each of a plurality of seed carbon nanotubes with a respective one of said plurality of carbon supersaturated portions, whereby carbon atoms from each said carbon supersaturated portions bond to said seed carbon nanotubes;
- and
- extracting each carbon nanotube from the respective one of said plurality of carbon supersaturated portions at a rate approximately equal to a rate of growth of each respective carbon nanotube.
1 more element
A method of elongating a seed nanotube, the method comprising:
- maintaining a thermal gradient within a molten flux material to maintain a supersaturated portion of the flux material;
- contacting the seed nanotube with the supersaturated portion of the molten flux material;
- epitaxially elongating the seed nanotube by precipitation of atoms from the molten flux material;
- and
- extracting the seed nanotube from the molten flux material as the seed nanotube is epitaxially elongated.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.