Thursday, August 17, 2006

US Patent 7091120 - Blade Coating of Aligned Nanowires

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7091120.pdf

The semconductive properties of nanowire composites are determined by various parameters including nanowire type, doping concentration, nanowire density, and nanowire orientation. Oriented nanowires are more desirable than random orientations to achieve anisotropic effects and improved conduction in the direction of alignment. Previous techniques to achieve such alignment include fluid flow alignment, ion flow alignment, and e-field alignment strategies. This patent claims the use of extruding or blade alignment to achieve such alignment. Claim 1 reads:

1. A process for producing a nanowire-material composite, comprising: (a) contacting nanowires with a material to form a mixture; and (b) blade coating or extruding said mixture on a substrate to form a nanowire-material composite such that said nanowires are aligned parallel to their long axis on said substrate.