NEC begins marketing ‘carbon nanohorn’

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NEC Corp on Tuesday announced the availability of the “carbon nanohorn,” a form of carbon nanotube, that can be used for a wide range of purposes, including medical innovations and capacitor enhancement.

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Carbon nanohorns were first discovered in 1998 by a research team lead by Dr Sumio Iijima, Senior Research Fellow, NEC Corporation. Each carbon nanohorn is approximately 2-5 nm (nanometers) in diameter and 40-50 nm long. When several thousand are collected together, carbon nanohorns or carbon nanohorn aggregates can form a spherical shape that is approximately 100 nm in diameter with a wide surface area per unit mass. This formation boasts a range of unique characteristics that include easy dispersion and high conductivity.

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Carbon nanohorns are expected to be used with materials spanning industries throughout the world, including the medical field (e.g. as a carrier for drug delivery systems), the electrical component field (e.g. capacitors, actuators and fuel cells) and others.

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“NEC is initiating these sales activities following the development and successful testing of technologies and equipment that can mass produce 1kg of 95% pure carbon nanohorns each day,” said Masayuki Hasegawa, assistant general manager, NEC. “We are now approaching businesses, universities, research centers and others in order to promote the sale and co-development of applications using carbon nanohorns. NEC aims to provide these materials to 20 organizations within the next 3 years.”

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