Fullerenes on the market
9 Oct 2000
Mitsubishi, Materials and Electrochemical Research and Research Corporation Technologies are to join forces to form Fullerene International, a company which aims to manufacture and commercialise fullerenes.
Fullerenes are produced by arcing graphite in a helium atmosphere - a highly energy-intensive and unpredictable process. Despite this, the FI partners plan to have a plant, located near Osaka, on-line and producing fullerene materials as early as the end of this year. The initial target is to optimise the process to increase yields, thereby reducing production costs.
The partners see a wide variety of uses for the materials, and plan to collaborate with several Japanese companies to develop these. Possible applications include batteries, gas storage, field electron displays, cutting tools, pharmaceutical delivery systems, sports equipment and capacitors for electric vehicles.
