ACEIZE Tracking the current state of Science and Technology

A brief summary of the current status of buckypaper in terms of feasibility, commercial availability, and product potential.

Several months ago, buckypaper was in the mainstream news. I would have thought that buckypaper would have made Aceize at that time, but looking back it looks like an article that I skipped. I haven't heard anything since, so I figured that I would look into the subject.

What is buckypaper?
Buckypaper is a solid collection of single walled nanotubes (SWNT). These nanotubes are held together through means of filtering a nanotube suspension. Nanotubes are placed in a suspension of non-ionic surfactants, such as Triton X-100 and Sodium lauryl sulfate. The resulting dispersion is then filtered and pressed to make buckypaper. Dr. Richard Smalley is credited with the first application of this method.

Buckypaper, largely by nature of being a solid created from nanotubes that are otherwise simply dust, has some important and useful properties. It has the electrical conductivity of copper or silicon. It has the thermal conductivity of 'steel or brass' (Wade Adams), or diamond (Richard Smalley [may have been referring to SW nanotubes themselves). Buckypaper is potentially 1/10th the weight of steel, yet 500 times stronger when stacked to form a composite.

Current Uses and Research Directions
Currently uses of buckypaper are being researched, as far as I can tell there are no currently available applications. Although in 2006, Frank Allen of the Florida Advanced Center for Composite Technologies told 'The Future of Things', that he expected to see buckypaper applied in military applications 'within two to three years'. So perhaps something is just around the corner (or hiding underground).

The current direction of research is military applications. The electrical conductivity applications of buckypaper make it a good EMI (electromagnetic interference) shielding, aka Faraday cage. The low weight of buckypaper could be useful for airplanes or small electronics.

Another research direction is based on the thermal conductive properties. Buckypaper could be used within computers to provide chip cooling or heat dispersion without adding a lot of weight, aka laptops and portable electronics.

Most additional research is directed towards producing higher quantities of buckypaper. Once production is increased and costs go down, the list of possible applications grows tremendously. From air filtration to planes and cars to armor plating and computer screens.

Current Costs
Buckypaper is made from Single Walled Nanotubes (SWNT). Currently the cost of SWNT runs from $1.50 per gram to $150ish per gram. That's per gram... The $1.50 per gram stuff is 'industrial grade', which is probably used in lubricants.
Source: Nano Material Store
Source: Nano Structured and Amorphous Materials, Inc.

One of the suspension compounds, Triton X-100, runs about $32.00 for 100mL.
Source: Coleparmer

A 40mm disc of manufactured Buckypaper costs $200, shipping and handling included. A rectangle 175mm x 225mm runs $2000.
Source: Nano-Lab

So the stuff's not cheap. The good news is that the cost of raw material is declining. I looked at the cost of nanotubes back around 2001, generally the cost was around $350 per gram. So the cost has dropped by about 60% in 8 years.

Best guess
Given these current rates of price decline, my guess is that in about 10 years we will start to see buckypaper in consumer goods. Once that happens, development will start to speed up and production will branch out into other, more noticeable, areas.