Thursday, November 16, 2006

US Patent 7135160 - Spheroidal Single Walled Nanotube Aggregate

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7135160.pdf

This patent from Carbon Nanotechnologies (founded by Richard Smalley, who surprisingly is not a listed inventor) possesses some basic claims toward purification of carbon nanotube material and macroscale carbon nanotube material. Claims 1 and 26 read:

1. A method for separating single-wall carbon nanotubes from an aqueous slurry, comprising: a) adding a water-immiscible organic solvent to an aqueous slurry comprising single-wall carbon nanotubes; b) isolating at least some of the single-wall carbon nanotubes in the solvent; and c) removing the solvent from the single-wall carbon nanotubes to form dried single-wall carbon nanotubes.

26. An aggregate comprising single-wall carbon nanotubes wherein the aggregate is spheroidal and has a diameter in a range of about 0.1 mm and about 5 mm, and wherein the aggregate contains at least about 80 wt % single-wall carbon nanotubes.