Identifying the Commercialization Path of Novel Carbon Nanofibers for Enhanced Structural Composites and Energy Storage
Abstract
Technology and potential market: The market for various types of nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and carbon nanofibers (CNFs), is growing at a staggering rate; the market for CNTs alone is estimated to be $670 million in 2019. This is due to a combination of remarkable properties of these nanomaterials, such as exceptional strength, which brings hope for new composites with superior performance metrics. However, major limitations exist in commercialization of nanomaterials, such as extremely prohibitive costs (e.g., the cost of CNTs can be 10-100x that of carbon fibers), extremely limited capabilities to generate continuous strands of nanofibers and nanotubes (as required to weave them into fabrics for more elaborate design of composites), and poor controllability over their microstructure (inherent in CVD production methods). We propose to overcome the above limitations by introducing continuous bundles of CNFs with significant control over the microstructure and geometry, all facilitated via proprietary and scalable processing methods. By controlling the processing parameters, we have managed to develop CNFs with a variety of forms: highly graphitic, wavy, hollow and porous. We believe that this technology has the potential to compete in two somewhat distinct product segments: carbon fiber/carbon nanofiber and carbon nanotube. Though fibers and tubes have somewhat different property sets, they can compete in the same markets. With the premise of reduced production cost and a unique set of properties (high aspect ratio, continuous strands, controllable properties such as strength reaching as high as 7 GPa, and electrical conductivity of 104 S/m), we propose to target current suppliers, such as electrospinning companies and carbon fiber companies, and also to evaluate a specific market approach providing tailored fiber offerings to areas such as structural composites and energy storage. PI: Dr. Mohammad Naraghi, Permanent resident of the United States of America, Assistant professor in Texas A&M University, Aerospace Engineering Department. He has more than 10 years of experience in processing and characterization of nanomaterials, especially graphitic materials, such carbon nanofibers and carbon nanotubes. Naraghi has served as the PI and co-PI of several federally funded projects and National labs, with a total budget of over $1.5 million, including DOD-AFSOR-YIP, from which the notion proposed here was born. He is the author of ~40 Journal publications. The PI will be teaching one course during his involvement in I-Corps. Entrepreneurial Lead (EL): Mr. Yijun Chen, Citizen of China, Ph.D. candidate of Dr. Naraghi, co-advised with Dr. James G Boyd since 2014. Yijun is on a student visa. The student is on I-20, which is valid even after the visa expires. He received an M.S. in Material Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2014. He has more than four years of research experience in material development. He has passed his Ph.D. thesis proposal exam, and expected to graduate in December 2018. The EL will take at most one course during his involvement in I-Corps. Mentor: Dr. John Beckerdite, Entrepreneur-In-Residence in Texas A & M. Prior to assuming this role, he spent 26 years in various technology development and commercialization roles within The Dow Chemical Company. While at Dow, he served as the Senior Intellectual Capital Leader for Dow s Performance Materials division and also led R&D for the both the Amines and Oxygenated Solvents businesses. In a subsequent role John served as the Chief Technology Officer of Exothermix. He is also the founder of P&N Technology Consulting, which provides intellectual property services in the natural sciences. DOD Lineage: The subject of this commercialization effort was developed by funds provided by the DOD-AFOSR project, Directorate of Complex Material and Devices: Low Density Materials.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 14, 2019
- Source ID
- W911NF1810128
Entities
People
- Mohammad Naraghi
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
- Texas Engineering Experiment Station