Interview with Maria Xenophontos
Questions by Sander Olson.
Answers Maria Xenophontos.
Rosseter holdings Limited
was established in 1998 uniting the entrepreneurial abilities of its founder,
Mrs M. Xenophontos-Ioannou and the extensive scientific research experience
of Dr. Vladislav Ryzhkov. Since Rosseter's incorporation the Research and
Development of its breakthrough method of bulk production of Carbon Nanotubes
at a non-prohibitive price has been completed. The Company is now commercialising
and selling from its production centre.
Question 1: Tell us
about yourself. What is your background, and How and when did you decide
to found Rosseter Holding LTD?
Please visit our web site
at http://www.e-nanoscience.com.
The decision to found Rosseter Holdings Ltd was rather accidental following
my introduction to Slava.
Question 2: Tell us
about your recent progress in making carbon nanotubes.
You will see on our web site
that we have 5 products developed. We have lately developed a new product
that is still under investigation, Ros-6, which will be pure single wall
nanotubes. The production of Ros-6 is fairly simple and there is no need
for the use of catalysts which are expensive and additionally the deposits
produced with catalysts contain a substantial quantity of metals. Our method
allows purer and cheaper product. Additionally we are establishing a reliable
method of hydrogen absorption in nanotubes.
Question 3: Carbon
nanotubes have generated enormous interest from various industries. How
close are we to seeing practical, cost-effective applications for carbon
nanotubes?
The properties of carbon
nanotubes remind a magic material and henceforth the vast number of applications.
While many applications of nanotubes are evidently not going to happen
in the very near future (especially replacing silicon in integrated
circuits). This does not
mean that there are no applications of nanotubes in other markets. Today
there are ready applications of nanotubes, for example, prototypes of cars
with fuel cells, flat screens displays, artificial muscles and more to
kick off the production process ; the current limited supply and prohibitive
price (per gram) delays this kick off.
Rosseter holds a key manufacturing
technology ready to offer to industry the security and comfort needed for
investing in new revolutionary applications. The company will not rule
out licensing its technology or the formation of strategic alliances. This
might be necessary for industries investing large capital in revolutionary
new manufacturing processes in order to ensure
cheap supply of the raw
product (carbon nanotubes).
Question 4: Some scientists
predict that carbon nanotubes could be used in electronic components, as
interconnects, memory elements, and even logic gates. Is this feasible?
Judging from announcements
by companies like IBM, Intel, etc. I believe that carbon nanotubes will
replace the silicon chip. Carbon nanotubes will reduce the size of electronics
considerably. I am coding parts of the announcement of IBM below.
The report on this work is
published in Science, Vol. 292, Issue 5517, April 27, 2001. The authors
of the report
"Engineering Carbon Nanotubes
and Nanotube Circuits Using Electrical Breakdown" are Phaedon Avouris,
of IBM's T.J. Watson Research Laboratory in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., Philip
G. Collins, formerly of IBM, now with Covalent
Materials in Emeryville,
California, and Michael S. Arnold, an IBM intern from the University of
Illinois. Constructive Destruction A breakthrough process could someday
enable a new class of computer chips smaller and faster than those made
with silicon. With his team, Avouris, lead researcher and manager of IBM's
Nanoscale Science Research Department, has built the world's first array
of transistors out of carbon nanotubes. These tiny cylinders of carbon
atoms measure as small as 5-10 atoms across 500 times smaller than today's
silicon-based transistors. The breakthrough is a new batch process for
forming large numbers of nanotube transistors. Until now, nanotubes had
to be positioned one at a time, which works fine for scientific experiments
but is impossibly slow and tedious for mass production. This achievement
could someday enable a new class of computer chips smaller and faster than
those currently possible with silicon. It represents an important step
towards finding new materials and processes for improving computer chips
after silicon-based chips cannot be made any smaller a problem chip-makers
expect to face in 10-20 years. "This is a major step forward in our pursuit
to build molecular-scale
electronic devices," Avouris
said. "Our studies prove that carbon nanotubes can compete with silicon
in terms of performance, and since they may allow transistors to be made
much smaller, they are promising candidates for a future nanoelectronic
technology. This new process
gives us a practical way of making nanotube transistors, which is essential
for future mass production."
Using carbon nanotubes as
transistors in chips Depending on their size and shape, the electronic
properties of carbon nanotubes can be metallic or semiconducting. This
proves that the smaller carbon nanotube transistors should allow for
Moore's Law to continue
on its path when silicon cannot be made any smaller.
Question 5: The mechanical
strength of carbon nanotubes is impressive. Would it be practical to embed
carbon nanotubes in a titanium matrix and create a material with 50 times
the strength/weight ratio of steel?
This is really for materials
scientists. We believe that if the material is properly dispersed and the
nanotubes are properly dispersed the mixing should mot be a problem It
is possible to disperse our nanotube products.
Question 6: How long
can you currently make carbon nanotubes? Will your company ever be able
to make carbon nanotubes of arbitrary length?
We have already produced
CNTs with shortened lengths (0.1-1?m). We are developing our method in
order to control the length of our CNTs.
Question 7: What is
the approximate cost for a gram of carbon nanotubes? How much further can
the cost be reduced?
Our pricing strategy is to
sell at $5 per gram as soon as our sales get into a regular pattern. With
further expansion we will further reduce our price.
Question 8: Speculate
on the ultimate potential for carbon nanotubes. How extensively will carbon
nanotubes be used, once manufacturing techniques have been perfected?
Once production of products
using carbon nanotubes starts the market is expected to be in muti billions.
These are the expectations of experts as there is a huge range of applications
from batteries to flat display screens, from fuel cells to strengthening
materials etc.
Question 9: How effectively
can carbon nanotubes be deposited in a matrix? Are there problems with
nanotubes clumping together or getting tangled?
Usually nanotubes are tangled
but as mentioned above our deposits can be dispersed. Ros-6 preliminarily
appears to be well
dispersed.
Question 10: What is
your opinion of molecular nanotechnology? Do you believe that Eric Drexler's
concept of molecular assemblers will ever be feasible?
Rosseter firmly believes
that molecular nanotechnology is 21st century's technology. Carbon nanotubes
offer the possibility of
revolutionary rather
than evolutionary developments in many product applications. We believe
that Drexler's concept will be feasible given time.
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