Intertek, a leading quality solutions provider to industries worldwide, which provides leading cutting edge analysis to meet the demands of nanotechnology innovators, today announced it had provided the nanotechnology testing expertise to verify the structural, physical and chemical properties of OCSiAl’s single-walled carbon nanotube products (SWCNTs) for the world's largest SWCNT production facility.
This production facility, built by international technology company OCSiAl, is capable of producing up to 10 tonnes of carbon nanotubes every year. To ensure that this material remains at a consistently high standard, OCSiAl relied on Intertek’s advanced analysis capabilities to verify structural and chemical parameters of its SWCNT product – TUBALL™. This is achieved through the application of a diverse set of complementary analytical techniques which have exceptional precision and sensitivity. Intertek’s specialist knowledge was used to investigate TUBALL™’s quality, diameter distribution, purity and elemental composition.
Carbon nanotubes, which are very thin tubes of elemental carbon (approximately 1/100000th the thickness of a single human hair), have exceptional mechanical, optical and electrical properties that could significantly enhance performance of a wide range of materials such as rubber, plastics, composites and many others. Applications currently being explored include additives for automotive tyres, batteries, composites, electrodes, coatings and transparent conductive films.
Ashot Ter-Avanessov, CEO Europe, OCSiAl said “Intertek’s expertise in complex product characterisation has been invaluable to OCSiAl. An independent validation of the structural and chemical parameters of our carbon nanotubes by the world leading authority in product testing has provided our customers with quality assurance and allowed us to ensure that our product remains at a consistently high quality.“
Neil Everall, Company Research Associate at Intertek, shared “Building on over 25 years of analytical research experience, Intertek’s problem-solving tools were applied to assess the quality of OCSiAl’s carbon nanotubes. We believe it is important to support our clients’ innovation in advanced materials including nanotechnology applications, such as carbon nanotubes and graphene.”