The first-ever Industry Summit in the rapidly developing and expanding field of nanoaugmented materials was held on 14–16 November at the birthplace of the world’s largest production facility for single wall carbon nanotubes, in Novosibirsk, Russia. The organiser of the event – OCSiAl – synthesises almost 90% of the world’s capacity of this unique conductive additive for thousands of materials.
Single wall carbon nanotubes are one of the most effective conductive additives – they are able to significantly increase electrical and thermal conductivity, and to improve the mechanical properties and other important characteristics of materials. However, their key advantage is that these desired properties can be achieved with ultralow loadings of the additive – hundreds or thousands of times lower than other widely used conductive additives, and starting from concentrations of just 0.01%. OCSiAl’s huge share of this market is a direct result of the unique technology it has developed that allows it to produce high-quality single wall carbon nanotubes, under the TUBALL™ brand, on an industrial scale, and at a price 75 times lower than that of the nearest analogues. The company has also developed super-concentrates that simplify the introduction of nanotubes into materials and do not require changes in production processes.
The Summit gathered together almost 180 participants, from 27 countries, from companies that already actively adopt nanoaugmented materials in their production processes. As the Global Marketing Manager of LANXESS Rhein Chemie Additives, Dr Benjamin Bechem, said, “We have presented to the market a line of TUBALL™-based suspensions branded Rhenofit CNT. And the market has already demonstrated an interest for it.”
Complementary to the plenary session and scientific conference, the three-day event included round table discussions on five pioneering industries that most actively adopt nanoaugmented materials: batteries, elastomers, thermosets, thermoplastics and coatings. Over the course of the Summit, various formats of meetings contributed to the sharing of knowledge and of results achieved so far, and widened the prospects for rapid development of the industry.
While OCSiAl is already well known in the market thanks to its network of partners and dealers, during the Summit the company was pleased to sign new contracts on TUBALL™ and TUBALL™-based concentrates with five companies: BÜFA Composite Systems, Union Chemicals, IMCD Italia, AGENZIA, and Nanjing LeiQi New Materials. Lothar Kempf, BÜFA Managing Director, said: “BÜFA has developed resin formulations for gelcoats and for GRP-composites based on OCSiAl nanotubes. A concentration of just 0.05% of TUBALL™ has allowed us not only to adjust the surface resistivity of our gelcoat to 104 O/sq, but also to preserve the mechanical properties and maintain the existing formulation and processing. Now we are working on enhancing the mechanical properties of composites materials with TUBALL™.”
“OCSiAl nanotubes allow Florma to manufacture highly competitive products. Despite the breakthroughs already achieved, I am confident that the real potential of single wall carbon nanotubes is still ahead. And we will discover the new applications and new markets of their use,” predicted Eliyahu Florenthal, the owner and the president of Florma.
