Rosseter Holdings Ltd.

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Carbon Nanotubes Now on Open Sale;
Could Lead to New Hydrogen Storage Technologies

19 Nov 2001

Author: Mark Cropper, Fuel Cell Today

Description: Carbon nanotubes have attracted considerable attention as potential hydrogen containers for fuel cell vehicles, as they can store hydrogen in much greater densities than existing storage technologies.

To date, however, no hydrogen containers using carbon nanotubes have been built, mainly owing to the great expense and difficulty of fabrication.

The situation, however, might be about to change. In October 2001, Cypriot company Rosseter Holdings Ltd announced at a symposium in Japan that it had started producing carbon nanotubes in bulk and at commercial prices.

Headed by Russian scientist Vladislay Ryzhikov, Rosseter was founded by a group of Cypriot businessman in 1998. It completed research and development of the method for producing carbon nanotubes in bulk in December 2000, and is now the first company in the world to sell them commercially.

Carbon nanotubes were first discovered in 1991, and boast extraordinary physical properties. They are a hundred times stronger than steel yet only one sixth of the weight. In addition they have very high electrical and thermal conductivity, and are chemically inert.

Nanotubes have potential in a large number of commercial and industrial applications, including wafer-thin television screens and computer monitors, fibre optics, superconductors, avionics and telecommunications.

Rosseter Holdings has not yet indicated whether or not its nanotubes could be used to store hydrogen. Its new product is, however, on open sale and available through its website www.e-nanoscience.com Prices range from US$20 to US$100 per gram, depending on the quantity purchased.

For more general information about nanotubes, please visit:
www.pa.msu.edu/cmp/csc/nanotube.html

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