By Cathleen Thiele,
Technology Analyst, IDTechEx www.IDTechEx.com/nano
Graphene Overtaking
Carbon Nanotubes
Carbon
Nanotubes (CNTs) have not yet met commercial expectations from a decade ago,
and now hot on its heels is graphene. Graphene is considered a hot candidate
for applications such as computers, displays, photovoltaics, and flexible
electronics.
According
to IDTechEx, the biggest opportunity for both materials is in printed and
potentially printed electronics, where the value of these devices that partly
incorporate these materials will reach over $44 billion in 2021.
In
a comparably short time a large amount of graphene materials have become
commercially available contributing to further advancements and application
development. Potentially at a fraction of the cost of CNTs, graphene may
displace carbon nanotubes and even Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) in some
applications.
Displays and PV
are Key Drivers
Flexible,
see-through displays may be the one application that finally puts graphene
into the commercial spotlight. Combined with other flexible, transparent
electronic components being developed at Rice University and elsewhere, the
breakthrough could lead to computers and solar cells that wrap around just
about anything. IDTechEx predicts a market volume of over $25 billion in 2021
for OLED displays and PV alone, some of which will use graphene.
Graphene
and its compounds are increasingly used to make transistors that show
extremely good performance - a progress that comes with new cheaper
production processes for the raw material. Transistors on the basis of
graphene are considered to be potential successors for the some silicon
components currently in use. Due to the fact that an electron can move faster
through graphene than through silicon, the material shows potential to enable
terahertz computing.
On
the other hand, carbon nanotubes are still a strong focus of research. They
too are used for making transistors and are applied as conductive layers for
the rapidly growing touch screen market. Still considered a viable
replacement for ITO transparent conductors in some applications, CNTs are not
out of the game yet. While the cost of carbon nanotubes was once prohibitive,
it has been coming down in recent years as chemical companies build up
manufacturing capacity.
Challenges
However,
there are still hurdles to overcome on both sides. For carbon nanotubes these
are especially related to the separation issue and consistent growth. Without
the latter, carbon nanotubes will probably never be used for high-volume
electronic applications. Graphene, on the other hand, lacks the ability to
act as a switch because it has no band gap. However, recent activities of
several academic institutions show promise that this restraining issue will
soon be solved.
Printed
Electronics Market
Nevertheless,
a very important result from both sides for the printed electronics market
are printable CNT inks and graphene-based inks that are beginning to hit the
market. Learn more about the CNT & Graphene market in the latest IDTechEx
report on the topic www.IDTechEx.com/nano.
The
upcoming Printed Electronics & Photovoltaics USA conference &
exhibition, which will take place in Santa Clara on November 30 and December
1, will cover all this and more in great detail www.IDTechEx.com/peUSA.
Graphene
Dr Narayan Hosmane from Northern Illinois University will tell us how he almost by accident produced high-yields of graphene instead of the expected single-wall carbon nanotubes by using the Dry-Ice Method. Synthetic methodologies for producing graphene on large quantities will be the topic of his presentation.
On
the applications side, Kate Duncan from CERDEC, the U.S. Army
Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, will
go into detail about direct write approaches to nanoscale electronics.
Polymer
solar cells have made significant progress in the past few years. Prof Yang
Yang, head of the Yang Group at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA),
will give a brief summary on the state-of-the-art status on this and UCLA
developments with G-CNTs, a hybrid graphene-carbon nanotube material.
US
company Vorbeck Materials Inc. says that products using their patented
graphene based electronic ink will appear in major retail stores sometime
this year. Dr Sanjay Monie, Technology Development Manager, will give the
latest R&D news on the Vor-ink™ line of conductive inks and coatings for
the printed electronics industry, the world's first graphene-based commercial
products.
Carbon Nanotubes
Stephen
Turner, Brewer Science, will talk about Aromatic Hydrocarbon
Functionalization of carbon nanotubes for conductive applications, “a new
functionalization path that affords high concentration dispersions without
destroying the electronic properties of the nanotube,“ as he puts it.
CNTRENE® carbon nanotube solutions is only one of the innovative materials
developed at Brewer Science for applications in semiconductors, advanced
packaging/3-D ICs, MEMS, displays, LEDs, and printed electronics.
And
of course, applications of carbon nanotubes will be among the topics:
Only
recently, SouthWest Nanotechnologies (SWeNT) received a two-year, $500,000
Oklahoma Research Grant to commercialize printed TFTs using semiconducting
inks, based on its single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) technology in
collaboration with Panasonic Boston Lab (PBL). Dr Philip Wallis, Director of
Operations at SWeNT, the leading SWCNT producer in the U.S., will tell us
more about their proprietary V2V™ ink technology and how they fabricate and
test the TFT devices to assure the necessary performance is
demonstrated.
And
last, but not least, CNT field emission will be the topic of Dr Jamie Nova’s
talk, Director of Operations at Applied Nanotech (ANI). The company offers a
wide range of other metallic inks and pastes. At the 2010 show Applied
Nanotech announced the introduction of one of the most suitable potential
replacements for coated substrates - EXCLUCENT™, substrates on flexible
transparent PET utilizing copper-based metallic mesh.
Printed
Electronics USA 2011 will take place from November 30 to December 1, with
Masterclasses being held on November 29 and December 2 at the Convention
Center in Santa Clara, California. In addition, tours to local centers of
excellence have been arranged, giving delegates a chance to see products and
operations first hand. For full details, visit www.IDTechEx.com/peUSA.
For
more information on the topic please contact the author Cathleen Thiele at c.thiele@IDTechEx.com or to find out
more about the Printed Electronics USA 2011 conference please contact the
Event Manager Mrs. Chris Clare at c.clare@IDTechEx.com.
IDTechEx
Dates:
RFID Europe 2011
| 27-28 September 2011 | Cambridge, UK
Energy Harvesting &
Storage USA 2011 | 15-16 November | Boston, USA
Wireless Sensor Networks
& RTLS USA 2011 | 15-16 November | Boston, USA
Printed Electronics &
Photovoltaics USA 2011 | November 30 – December 1 | Santa Clara,
CA, USA
Electric Vehicles: Land,
Sea, Air USA 2012 | March 27-28, 2012 | San Jose, CA, USA
|
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