The Laboratory this morning will sign a cooperative research and development agreement with Carbon Designs Inc. to collaborate on the development of ultra-strong fibers made of carbon nanotubes that are expected to be many time stronger than any current engineering materials. Carbon Designs Inc., plans to initially invest $2 million in the joint effort.
Laboratory Director Pete Nanos will sign the CRADA and license on behalf of Los Alamos. Signing on behalf of CDI will be the founder and former Los Alamos staff member Brad Edwards. The signing is at 11 a.m., in the Materials Science Laboratory Auditorium at Technical Area 3.
Discovered in 1991 by Japanese scientist Sumio Iijima, carbon nanotubes are cylindrical carbon molecules that are very similar in structure to a fullerene, or buckyball, but instead of being a sphere, the nanotube is tubular in shape. These microscopic molecules are usually a few nanometers in diameter, or a billionth of a meter; comparatively, a virus is 100 nanometers in size. The current CRADA is one of the largest sponsored research agreements ever signed by the Laboratory.
