When it comes to carbon nanotubes, many people are unfamiliar with the name. In fact, carbon nanotubes are also a type of carbon material, which can be widely understood as a tubular structure made of graphitized carbon atoms, single-layer or multi-layer curling.
So what is so special about this nanotube? The diameter of carbon nanotubes can be as small as nanometers, but the length can reach several meters, just like "a slender hair strand."
However, although carbon nanotubes are very small in size, their physical properties are extremely powerful. According to Li Qingwen, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, carbon nanotubes are 100 times stronger than steel with the same volume. Therefore, carbon nanotubes are also regarded as the strongest and hardest materials that mankind can make.
In practical applications, carbon nanotubes are also called universal materials because of their excellent electrical and thermal properties. Carbon nanotubes have broad application prospects in many subdivisions such as integrated circuits, batteries, and sensors.
Since Japanese physicists started the study of carbon nanotubes in 1991, there have been 30 years of international exploration of this new material.
And China's leading carbon nanotube technology companies and scientific research teams have also achieved many breakthroughs in the field of carbon nanotubes through continuous research and development and "have been at the world's leading level in some areas."
The situation of relying on imports is ended
The boom in China's electric vehicle industry has driven a boom in the lithium battery industry. In the composition of lithium batteries, the conductive agent is undoubtedly one of the most important components.
Different conductive agents are composed of carbon materials with different structures, and carbon nanotubes are the best-performing one and have the largest market share.
In the world, there are not many companies that can produce carbon nanotubes on a large scale, and the Korean giant LG is one of them. In 2020, LG officials announced a plan to produce 1,700 tons of multi-walled carbon nanotubes per year, becoming one of the few companies with a production capacity of 1,000 tons.
In China, leading companies represented by JSTN Nano Technology Corporation have also achieved continuous production of carbon nanotubes through self-developed catalytic reaction processes. Especially in recent years, with the expansion of JSTN and other production scales and the improvement of technology, the carbon nanotube conductive agent developed by JSTN has been successfully applied to the world's largest lithium battery manufacturer CATL products.
In fact, conductive agent is only one of the application directions of carbon nanotubes. In the field of integrated circuits, carbon nanotubes are also high hopes. Especially as Moore's Law is gradually approaching the physical limit, carbon nanotubes are also regarded as the best substitute for silicon semiconductors.