Financial Times, Oct 4, 2001
By FIONA HARVEY

Carbon nanotubes, with their exceptional strength and high thermal and electrical conductivity, are one of the most useful products of nanotechnology.

Scientists have become adept at creating the microscopic tubes in the laboratory in order to investigate their properties. The problem no one has so far been able to crack is how to manufacture the tubes outside the laboratory. At present, they cost hundreds of dollars a gram to produce.

A company that believes it can produce nanotubes for as little as Dollars 5 a gram has been set up in Cyprus. Rosseter will announce its developments this week at the Carbon Nanotube Decadal Celebration Meeting in Japan.

The company uses patent-pending processes developed by a Russian scientist, Vladislav Ryzhkov, formerly of the University of Omsk. The low-energy hydrocarbon decomposition processes are said to yield 3kg of the tubes a week in the company's plant, using only the amount of electrical energy produced by a standard car battery.

Rosseter joins several other companies already working on ways to commercialise the production of nanotubes, including Carbon Nanotechnologies, co-founded by Richard Smalley, who won a Nobel prize for his work on the subject. It expects to make commercial quantities of the tubes within two years but Rosseter believes it can bring its tubes to market more quickly.

The company is seeking partners to commercialise its technology. Rosseter, Limassol, Cyprus; www.e-nanoscience.com; tel: +357 5591 600 Copyright: The Financial Times Limited