The first day of the 2010 EuroSpaceward Conference has ended and it’s been an excellent first day.  There is just so much going on in the CNT world – hearing about new research from the people who are doing it is intellectually very stimulating.

For a Space Elevator fan such as me, listening to the presentations about the development of CNTs is both exciting and depressing.  It’s depressing hearing about all of the problems that the researchers are running into in trying to create the “long strong tubes” that we need to build an SE, but it’s exciting to hear about the new approaches being tried, advances being made and real, undeniable progress (though not fast enough for me ?).

I have a couple of photos to share with you.  The first is a ‘formal picture’ of, from left-to-right, Markus Klettner (Executive Director of EuroSpaceward – the person principally responsible for these conferences), Dr. Boris Yakobsen of Rice University and Dr. Vessilin Shanov of the University of Cincinnati.  Dr. Yakobsen and Dr. Shanov are at the absolute forefront of CNT research.

The second picture is a more informal one of Dr.’s Yakobsen and Shanov comparing notes during a break in the proceedings.

And the third picture is kind of neat.  It is a screenshot of the cover of the issue of American Scientist magazine where Dr. Yakobsen and the late Dr. Smalley published their article talking about CNTs and Space Elevators (I blogged about that issue here).  However, this is a cover that never made it to publication.  Dr. Yakobsen talked about how difficult it was for the artist to get the concept right.  When he finally had something to Dr. Yakobsen’s satisifaction, he requested one more change – putting in a couple of 5-7 (Stone-Wales) defects in the nanotube structure to make it a bit more realistic.  The artist did so and the cover you see in this post is the result – if you look carefully, you can see the defects.  However, the magazine editors decided to run with the cover with the perfect nanotubes (no defects) and that was the issue which was printed.

I’m looking forward to today’s sessions very much…

(As always, click on any photo thumbnail to see a full size version of the picture) 

First up is Dr. David Ruch who heads up the department of Advanced Materials and Structures (AMS) at the Centre Recherche Public Henri Tudor.  He talked about the work they were doing at their institute including using CNTs for “…plasma polymerization of materials to make them suitable for energy and barrier systems.”  Possible applications include fuel cells, anticorrosion layers on galvanized steel, etc.

Next is Dr. Jerome Guillot, a researcher on CNT functionalisation at the Department for Science and Materials Analysis (SAM) at the Public Research Centre Gabriel Lippmann.  Dr. Guillot is a partner in the proposed Project CLAVIS I posted about earlier.  His work centers on research about the concept of gas detection using functionalized carbon nanotubes.  The number of potential applications that CNTs have is truly amazing.  In this application (and in many others), it relies on the very huge surface / volume ration that CNTs enjoy.  Because of my interest in using CNTs to build a Space Elevator tether, I am guilty of having ‘tunnel-vision’ regarding what CNTs can do, but the nanotube workshop I attended in Cincinnati a couple of months ago opened my eyes – and now what I’m seeing here at the 2010 EuroSpaceward conference is just reinforcing it.  Dr. Guillot’s work with CNTs is ‘backwards’ in what others are trying to do with them.  When trying to maximize the strength of CNTs, you want them to be as defect-free as possible.  However, when doping them with metals (or whatever), as Dr. Guillot is doing, he wants to have defects – these are the nucleation sites.

The next speaker was Dr. Philippe Poulin, a CNT fiber production expert at Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal.  His talk was entitled “Liquid processing of carbon nanotube composite fibers”.   This approach to creating CNT fibers (or composite fibers) is an alternative to the “forest growth” which comes from carbon-vapor deposition (CVD) CNT growth.  One type of Liquid processing is good for low CNT concentration, very useful for making items such as conductive textiles. (‘smart’ fabrics, anti-static packaging, strain sensors, etc.).  Another type of liquid spinning is good for high CNT concentrations, a method similar to how other synthetic fibers (such as Kevlar) are spun.

Next up is Mr. Matthew James from Cambridge University.  This is the home of Dr. Alan Windle and his “special kind of smoke” CNTs.  His topic ks “Advancements on CNT fibre strength” – a topic near and dear to my heart (and to anyone else who wants a Space Elevator).  They claim for a 1 mm fiber a specific strength of 9GPa-g/cm3.  This would be strong enough to win the $2Million Strong Tether competition if they (and a to-be-named US partner) would enter.  They also claim numbers of 1pound 35 to send a kilogram to LEO!  I have to see how they came up with their numbers.  Also, he discussed using the SE tether itself as a solar panel, collecting energy from the sun and transmitting it to the Climber(s).  I have to think about this – I’m going to write up a separate post on his presentation.  Very innovative, but too good to be true, I fear…

Now up is Dr. Karl Fleury-Frenette from the University of Liege in Belgium.  His topic is Laser micro-processing of carbon nanotubes, including laser ablation, laser generation of nanoparticles, laser induced forward transfer (a coating technique), thermo-reflectance, local laser continuous heating (early 2011) and laser assisted CVD (2012)

Break…

Next up is Dr. Martin Lades.  Martin is a long-time Space Elevator guy.  He was a member of the Kansas City Space Pirates and a founding member of The Internatinal Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC).  Martin is a Board Member of ISEC as well as taking care of all of our day-2-day IT issues.  I’ve know Martin for several years now and am happy to count him among my friends.  His talk is on Project CLAVIS, a European CNT initiative.  The CLAVIS objectives are 1) Overcome CNT growth termination, 2) Determine appropriate catalyst selection, 3) Develop techniques for in-situ tracking of CNT growth and 4) Increase growth rate of CNT array to minimize defect formation and amorphous carbon.  This is the first time I’ve heard of this project – I hope that it gets off the ground as the more minds that are working on this problem, the better.

Next is Dr. Boris Yakobsen.  I was able to have dinner with him and a few others last night and participated in a very stimulating discussion about carbon nanotubes, politics, Wikileaks and all the rest…  He opened his presentation by quoting a section of Arthur C Clarke’s The Fountains of Paradise – always ‘red meat’ for a Space Elevator enthusiast.  He then discussed trying to understand why carbon nanotubes failed under stress.  This was followed by a theoretical discussion of why carbon nanotube growth starts and how does it continue to grow.  I am reminded of a comment that Ben Shelef made to me once when he was talking about why nanotube growth stops after a while.  He said that someone (Dave Lashmore from Nanocomp?  Steve Steiner from MIT?) said “Why does CNT growth stop?  We don’t even know why it starts!”  I’m not a physicist nor a chemist, so much of what he said was over my head, but the talk was fascinating…

We then heard from Dr. Michael De Volder talking about Tailoring the self-organization of CNT growth.  I was introduced to this topic at the Nanotube workshop in Cincinnati from a talk given by John Hart from the University of Michigan.  It turns out that Dr. De Volder is collaborating with Dr. Hart and so his subject matter is a bit familiar to me.  His talk centered on using capillary forces to create nanotube structures.  A nanotube ‘forest’ is mostly empty space.  This forest is saturated with a liquid and then the liquid is removed.  This causes the nanotubes to form various structures, depending on how they were originally grown.  According to Dr. De Volder (and Dr. Hart), these structures are much more rigid than the original nanotube forest – this process is called capillary densification.

Lunch…

And we’re off.  Markus Klettner, Executive Director of EuroSpaceward, is giving the kickoff address.  He is talking about why we are having this conference.  His rationale is to help humanity become a Type I civilization and a Space Elevator (and all of its associated technologies) is a key to making this happen.  EuroSpaceward brings together leading scientists & engineers, supports research on mechanical properties of CNT and expects cross-fertilization of ideas & activities in order to achieve a breakthrough in growing ultra long (m) CNTs for the development of the SE mega cable.  Here’s a news flash – a European Strong Tether Challenge?  EuroSpaceward is working on this.  More details later…

Next up is Dr. Vessilin Shanov from the University of Cincinnati.  I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Shanov at the recent workshop held at the U of C last October and it is a great pleasure to be able see him again.  His talk is about developments at the U of C including growing CNTs that approach 1 inch in length this past January.  He is NOT talking about why CNT growth seems to stop and the CNTs detach from the catalyst saying he doesn’ know why and it is the “Million Dollar question”,  With respect, I would call it the “Billion Dollar question”.  CNT applications he is discussing include tiny biosensor electrodes, ‘dry’ adhesives, etc.  They’ve patented the name of the type of CNTs they grow; “Black Cotton”.

Coffee break…