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HiPCO® Applications
HiPCO Purified for EV Battery Applications
The use of carbon nanotubes in lithium-ion batteries has the potential to improve their energy density, improve battery life and provide faster charge and discharge cycles.
In Silicon anode applications SWCNT play a crucial role in maintaining the integrity and performance of the battery. SWCNTs help in solving issues like Silicon cracking, rapid capacity fading due to poor electric conductivity of Silicon. SWCNT also act as binder in silicon anode materials, helping to improve the adhesion between the silicon particles and the current collector.
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SWCNT based electrodes offer extraordinary energy density storage and an equivalent amount of delivered power compared to the traditional electrodes. This is due to the high surface area, high conductivity and controllable porosity of the SWCNT. The functionalization of material with redox materials has showcased enhanced energy density. Sidewall defects in the SWCNTs have resulted in reported capacity values approaching 1000 mAhr g1.
At NoPo, we are producing industry scale raw nanotubes which go through purification using our patented halogen purification technique to remove the catalyst to obtain a material with >99% SWCNT suitable for EV battery application.
Low concentration of only 0.5 weight % of HiPCO tubes can sufficiently replace 10 weight % of carbon black in the composite considering the electrical conductivity as well as the battery performance.
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Due of their low density, SWCNTs as anode for the batteries can accommodate 10X more lithium during recharging. Although the capacity of Lithium metal (3860 mAh g−1) is one of the highest among anode materials, dendrite formation between anode and cathode raises a security concern. SWCNTs prevent dendrites from forming when as much lithium is deposited on the anode.
Other advantages offered by HiPCO
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Smaller diameters are easier to disperse and stay in a dispersion longer.
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SWCNT properties are precisely defined unlike MWCNT. This leads to a more consistent product
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Fe is easy to remove using our proprietary Halogenation process. This is not practical to remove all the other catalyst components such as Co, Bimetal, etc.
We supply in 0.2% to 0.4% dispersion in NMP or CMC as desired by the customers. And we have developed methods to functionalize and disperse Nanotubes in most common solvents.
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HiPCO in Electronics Applications
Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have attracted significant attention in the electronics industry due to their high electrical conductivity and thermal properties. Their one-dimensional structures with diameters in the order of a few nanometers make them ideal for use as interconnects, transistors, and sensors in electronic devices. SWCNTs are also applied as conductive layers for the rapidly growing touch screen market. 
Using HiPCO SWCNT our Semiconductor customers can achieve significantly higher transistor density, and lower energy consumption
NoPo’s HiPCO are perfectly suited for semiconductor application due to their small diameter. NoPo HiPCO have a high proportion of semiconducting nanotubes. Purified HiPCO SWCNT consists of 67% semi-conducting and 33% metallic SWCNT.
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Additional details are available in some of the publications with NoPo HiPCO
We have also developed industrial scale technology for sorting semiconducting nanotubes and we are among the very few players who have the ability to isolate single chiral at milligram volumes.
Apart from this we also have the technology of sorting metallic nanotubes for conductive Carbon fiber applications such as high-end electronics, flexible sensors and others. We are further developing technology to draw carbon fibers.
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HiPCO Water Filtration
United Nations estimates that 50% of the world's population will face water scarcity by 2030. SWCNT membranes is a ground breaking nanotechnology that promises to revolutionize the desalination industry, securing a sustainable future for our planet.
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NoPo HiPCO® SWCNT based water membrane is capable of transporting water molecules up to 100x faster than any known pore
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NoPo Nanotechnologies' SWCNT based Filtration membrane uses the unique property of NoPo HiPCO® Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes to filter water molecules. The nanotubes are tubular structures with a diameter of 0.6 - 1.1nm and a length of 1000nm. The atomically smooth inner hydrophobic wall allows water to travel faster. The size of the nanotubes is so tiny that they allow only water molecules to pass through and reject the flow of salts. This functioning of nanotubes to allow pure water to flow is in analogy with aquaporins.
The researchers tested the membranes with different salts, including NaCl, KCl, and MgCl2, and found that the SWCNT membranes had a higher selectivity than traditional membranes. In addition, the SWCNT membranes were able to separate the salts individually, which is important for certain applications such as the extraction of rare earths. The extraction of rare earths requires the separation of different salts, which is currently a costly and time-consuming process. The use of SWCNT membranes could reduce the cost and time required for this process, making the extraction of rare earths more economically feasible.
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HiPCO in Aviation
Use of SWCNT in aviation and satellite can be path breaking. SWCNT play a role across many applications including EMI shielding, stealth applications, prevention from lightening attack, providing light weight conductive fibers, de-icing, improved composite strength and many others.
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SWCNT based thin film material has attracted a lot of interest from the industry due to its low light reflectance useful for development of high absorber coatings for stray light control applications. At NoPo, we have developed technology for the successful fabrication of stable thin films comprised of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and nanoscrolls (CNS) on an aluminum (Al) substrate, which exhibited low reflectance of the order of 2–3% in the visible and near-infrared (NIR) spectral bands. SWCNTs with their 1D structure, confined electron density to the plane of the rolled graphite sheet and the excitonic optical transitions across sharp one-dimensional (1D) density of states show great promise as black absorber coatings. The super black coating developed by NoPo is also space qualified!
SWCNT composites have been shown to be extremely effective in EMI shielding requirement. The aligned cellular microstructure and outstanding intrinsic properties of SWCNTs have rendered metal-like thermal conductivity, excellent mechanical strength, flexibility, and hydrophobicity in SWCNT films, leading to excellent EMI shielding effectiveness despite a density of only ~0.6 g cm−3 at thicknesses of merely 1.5–24 µm. Studies have found that SWCNT-polymer composites with more than 20dB shielding efficiency can be easily obtained, and EMI shielding effectiveness correlates with the DC conductivity.
When subjected to mechanical deformation, chemical corrosion, and extreme environments, SWCNT films exhibit excellent stability and reliability, demonstrating significant potential in aerospace defense. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have been proposed as a potential material for reducing lightning damage in various applications, including helicopters. The basic idea behind this is that SWCNTs can act as conductive fillers and help to distribute the electrical charge more evenly across the surface of the material.
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HiPCO in Medicine
SWCNTs possess unique properties such as high surface area, strong mechanical strength, and ability to penetrate cellular membranes making them attractive candidates for use in cancer therapy. Additionally, SWCNTs are capable of targeting cancer cells specifically and releasing drugs selectively, minimizing damage to healthy cells.
Owing to their unique physiochemical features, CNTs are extensively studied in cancer theranostics with versatile application potentials. For instance, the strong absorption of CNTs in near-infrared (NIR) regions enables their application in photothermal therapy (PTT). CNTs can transform the laser energy to acoustic signals and exhibit great resonant Raman scattering and photoluminescence in NIR region, which are all beneficial to their utilization in cancer imaging. Besides, it has been reported that only a tiny amount of nanodrugs can be successfully delivered into solid tumors because of the biological obstacles and complicated tumor microenvironment (TME) that hinder their deep penetration. CNTs can carry therapeutic agents to many intracellular targets like nucleus, mitochondria and cytoplasm, or target the TME components to disturb tumor cells’ living condition, both of which can result in an enhanced antitumor effect.
NoPo produces HiPCO® nanotubes which contain the high fraction of semiconducting SWCNT which would be well suited for the bioimaging application. The HiPCO® SWCNT is used by researchers as a near-infrared photoluminescent (NIR-PL) imaging agent for non-invasive visualization of tissues. The semiconducting HiPCO® SWCNT species provides high fluorescence[1]. The HiPCO® SWCNT is shown to have significant ingestion via macrophages without showing toxic effect and stable imaging of the cells and tissues[2].
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[1] M. Yudasaka et al., “Near-Infrared Photoluminescent Carbon Nanotubes for Imaging of Brown Fat,” Sci. Rep., vol. 7, p. 44760, Mar. 2017.
[2] Z. Gao, N. Danné, A. G. Godin, B. Lounis, and L. Cognet, “Evaluation of Different Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Surface Coatings for Single-Particle Tracking Applications in Biological Environments,” Nanomaterials, vol. 7, no. 11, Nov. 2017.
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