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Shear reactor for vortex synthesis of nanotubesShear reactor for vortex synthesis of nanotubes description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20090263309, Shear reactor for vortex synthesis of nanotubes. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
The applicants claim the benefit of provisional application 61/026,963 entitled “Continuous Synthesis of Carbon Nanotubes by Vortex Turbulence” filed Feb. 7, 2008 by Wilmot H. McCutchen and David J. McCutchen, as well as provisional application 61/034,242 entitled “Dual Disk Dynamo High Shear Reactor” by Wilmot H. McCutchen and David J. McCutchen, filed Mar. 6, 2008. This invention applies to the synthesis of carbon or other nanotubes and to electrolysis in turbulent reactors. Nanotubes have been synthesized from many materials, including boron nitride, tungsten disulfide, titanium dioxide, molybdenum disulfide, bismuth, copper, and gold. Carbon nanotubes in particular are a commercially valuable form of carbon that has many remarkable properties. The fibers are 100 times stronger in tensile strength than steel, and are the most efficient heat conductors known. These nanotubes have a high degree of stiffness, due to their molecular structure. They can theoretically be formed in any length, but present methods of formation include a random direction of formation, and this limits the resulting length the nanotube to a couple of centimeters as best. Chemical vapor deposition is a method currently used by commercial companies creating quantities of nanotubes. The formation of the nanotubes is made from the evaporation of a solution of carbon or other ions suspended in alcohol or another solvent. This makes the tubes form in random directions to a length of at most a few millimeters. The solvent with the forming tubes can be in the form of an aerogel, and the final step of deposition can be as the aerogel is being drawn into a cable. This can achieve speeds of deposition of up to 2 meters a minute, but the cable is a grouping of short nanotube lengths, and lacks the tensile strength that would come from a single long nanotube. Laser ablation and arc discharge are other synthesis methods. In laser ablation for carbon nanotubes, a high energy laser vaporizes a carbonaceous target to produces carbon ions, whereas arc discharge vaporizes carbon electrodes. Isotropic turbulence spins some of these carbon ions into nanotubes, which are very short in length due to the chaotic orientation and short duration of any formation vortices. Depending on their structure, carbon nanotubes can be electrical superconductors, also known as metallic nanotubes, or semiconductors. Conventional synthesis methods produce a mixture of conductive and semiconductor nanotubes, which must later be separated by suitable means outside of the reactor. The present invention represents a scalable approach to continuous synthesis of long nanotubes. A flow of carbon ions is organized into radial vortices which feed the formation of continuously evolving nanotubes. The ion vortices are mechanically forced by counter-rotating disk impeller/electrodes, and the vortices create a solenoidal magnetic field which causes self-tightening of the vortex. Turbulence is anisotropic, or directionally oriented, instead of the random isotropic turbulence of conventional reactors, so the vortices are coherent and radially arranged. The formation process within these vortices favors the creation of longer strands that can be spooled up to an external reel continuously. This can make the production of long nanotube strands in large quantities a commercial reality. Another advantage is that the formation process tends to favor the production of metallic instead of semiconducting nanotubes. The evolving nanotubes are charged as cathodes, and the current will flow easily through the metallic nanotubes to their evolving ends, but does not flow easily through semiconductive nanotubes due to their higher resistance. Therefore semiconductive nanotubes tend not to evolve because their evolving ends are starved of electrons by their resistance. A further advantage is the production of doped nanotubes with variations along their length, produced by changing the conditions in which the evolving end of the nanotube is formed. The ion source may be electrolysis within the shear reactor, or an external source. In the case of an external source, the source gas fed into the shear reactor is a mixture of a carrier gas and the ions which will be rolled into nanotubes by coherent directed turbulence and swirling cathode fall. The nanotubes could therefore be of gold or other conventional nanotube materials, as well as of carbon. Continue reading about Shear reactor for vortex synthesis of nanotubes... Full patent description for Shear reactor for vortex synthesis of nanotubes Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Shear reactor for vortex synthesis of nanotubes patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Shear reactor for vortex synthesis of nanotubes or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Dense diamond body Next Patent Application: Method for making carbon nanotubes Industry Class: Chemistry of inorganic compounds ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Shear reactor for vortex synthesis of nanotubes patent info. 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