from the putting-more-fiber-in-our-lives dept.
Nearly 20 years ago researcher Alex Zettl of the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) synthesized in his laboratory a new material never before seen by nature: boron nitride nanotubes, the strongest, lightest, most thermally conducting and most chemically resistant fiber known to exist. Now a startup has licensed this technology with the aim of manufacturing boron nitride nanotubes for commercial use.
Berkeley Lab has licensed the invention to BNNT LLC, a startup company based in Newport News, Vir.[sic] BNNT has also developed its own technology for producing high-quality nanotubes in large quantities and envisions it for eventual uses in space, satellites, jet engines, cancer therapies and a wide range of other applications. Its manufacturing technique was developed jointly by the DOE’s Jefferson Lab, NASA’s Langley Research Center and the National Institute of Aerospace.
On the other hand, http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=36915.php notes:
We found that BNNTs can be chemically dispersed, and their morphology can be modified by a relatively mild method: simply sonicating the nanotubes in aqueous ammonia solution at ambient conditions," notes Chen. "It is not surprising that ammonia, as a small Lewis base molecule, can be used for such a purpose since similar chemistry is well known. However, unexpectedly but more importantly, the nanotube structures were significantly corroded.
So, one report states BNNTs are the "most chemically resistant fiber known to exist" and the other that with ammonia, "the nanotube structures were significantly corroded." Can someone here explain the apparent contradiction?
(Score: 2) by Tork on Sunday September 07 2014, @06:34PM
So, one report states BNNTs are the "most chemically resistant fiber known to exist" and the other that with ammonia, "the nanotube structures were significantly corroded." Can someone here explain the apparent contradiction?
Umm... paper beats rock?
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Sunday September 07 2014, @07:49PM
Its a pH thing just like glass. Plain ole glass is pretty much acid proof although it corrodes in alkaline solutions. This boron nitride apparently behaves the same way. I would not be surprised to discover its utterly insoluble in acids or water and melts away in alkalines. Kind of like aluminum.
Another way to look at it is boron trioxide plus ammonia at red heat is one way to make boron nitride. At room temp I would not be totally surprised if the thermodynamics arrow points the other way, but I'm too lazy to run the numbers. A lot of equilibrium based manufacturing techniques depend on fooling around this way. A bad but not entirely inaccurate analogy is ammonia itself, at room temp you can burn it as a shitty fuel, but if you heat H2 and N2 to a bit beyond a red heat with some catalysts you get ammonia, the reaction is kinda running the opposite direction.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday September 07 2014, @11:42PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford