Manufacturer of carbon nanotubes

Black bottles containing carbon nanotubes with large applications, seen with the naked eye, are easy to imagine, including coal powder. In fact, it is a high-tech product that is PGS. Dr. Phan Ngoc Minh and colleagues of the Institute of Materials Science, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology created with self-made "low-tech" devices .

Potential materials

Assoc.Dr.Phan Ngoc Minh

'Research on carbon nanotube materials (CNTs) has many prospects both in basic research and applied research. This area has important applications for society , 'said Dr. Minh. The team has developed the design of the equipment necessary to form a synchronous experimental process. 'Our laboratory has approached this new material object from the construction of synthetic laboratory equipment, based on the chemical method of vapor phase deposition, studying the conditions of manufacturing technology. , apply and build some measurements' , said Dr. Phan Ngoc Minh.

The research team has built equipment to create materials and successfully research complete technological processes, lower cost suitable for Vietnamese conditions. ' One of the tasks of current CNTs studies is to synthesize materials in large quantities, high cleanliness and low cost. We have developed the CVD method and have resulted in the creation of original materials that meet the above goal , 'said Dr. Minh.

Along with material synthesis, the research team has experimented with cleaning technologies for CNTs to improve material cleanliness by over 95%. Currently 'productivity' of CNTs in the laboratory scale reaches 100-300g / day with 95% cleanliness and can eventually increase 'capacity' many times. The cost of CNTs made by the Institute will be similar to that of Chinese products (about 0.5 USD / g), while the quality is superior.

Looking for "handshakes"

After creating such a product with a unique feature, the team started a new "conquest" : deploying the product application.

'Currently, scientists at the Institute of Materials Science are conducting research to apply a variety of nanoscale materials, such as quantum dot materials to make biomarkers, materials from nanoscale materials. Biomedical applications, nanomaterials for high-performance lighting, nano-size catalytic materials, fabrication of sensors for measuring humidity, alcohol, making transducers for head scanning microscopes High resolution detector, low power electronic emission source ., research direction of CNTs materials will be strongly concentrated, " said Dr. Minh.

'Research on CNTs is in the direction of high-tech research, but it doesn't have to wait for decades to be able to apply in industry. In the current situation, many businesses can fully exploit the transcendent properties of this material, or other nanomaterials, to turn into specific products for the market ' - Dr. Minh said - ' CNTs application technology is simple, yet effective to see '.

Although nanomaterials have great potential for application, it is a difficult problem for scientists how to exploit applications and commercialize. 'Currently, the potential to apply CNTs to turn into' tubers of potatoes, cassava tubers 'is very difficult , ' said Dr. Minh. According to him, businesses, industrial zones have not had the habit and need to shake hands with laboratories, so there are many researches with high applicability still . 'covering mats', and real CNTs materials. Export in laboratory scale is still only potential. He said that the main reason is that domestic technology enterprises have not developed yet, mainly assembling and doing business, so they often buy cheap and available ones, but have not invested in research or shake hands. with scientists.