Nanoledge

The Next Big Thing in Tubes

Emerging company Nanoledge is on a mission to design materials that boast exceptional properties. And Nanoledge has a formidable weapon to help in the quest: carbon nanotubes, a “cobbled” structure of carbon atom hexagons folded round to form a hollow cylinder. A molecule with amazing properties, it is 100 times more resistant and six times lighter than steel. “Nanotubes have many other advantages,” explains Kai Schierholz, director of R&D for the company. “They feature remarkable characteristics in terms of electrical and thermal conductivity. We can store molecules in the nanotubes and make them respond to electrical stimulation by movement.” As a result, carbon nanotubes can be incorporated into polymer resins and solvents, thereby improving the properties of certain composite materials as well as adding new ones. Making nanotubes, however, is another matter altogether. Nanoledge may only have five years business experience behind it, but it certainly has the know-how. Nanoledge draws on its wealth of expertise while coordinating activities with its industrial partners to develop materials into which the nanotubes will be integrated. Focussing on high performance thermoset resins, the company supplies products and technical support for a wide range of applications and processing methods. This promising endeavor has been quick to catch everyone's attention, especially in sports, automobile, aerospace, and electronics industries.

The Nanoledge project was launched in 1999 by researchers at the GDPC laboratory in Montpellier¹ and got off to a flying start, twice winning an award (in 1999 and 2000) in the national competition spearheading the creation of innovative start-ups. The company was finally established in 2001 after being granted a license to use the nanotube synthesis process developed by the laboratory. And now, it is once again a CNRS laboratory that is helping them move to the next stage: transferring nanotubes' remarkable molecular properties to the macroscopic scale. The company seems to be on the right track, since the first end products enabled by Nanoledge's NANO IN technology are commercially available. Over the past two years, Nanoledge has been working with CEM2 to develop low-cost photovoltaic cells² “characterized by the addition of nanotubes to the active layers to increase their output,” explains Fabien Pascal of CEM2.

With its seven patents and its expertise, no doubt Nanoledge will play a key role in the development of nanotube technology.

Géraud Chabriat