Nanocomp Wins Prestigious WSJ Technology Award

I was pleased to wake up this morning and open up the Wall Street Journal's Technology section to see that Nanocomp Technologies, one of our portfolio companies from CEI Community Ventures, had won the WSJ 2008 Technology Innovation Award in the “materials and other base technologies” category.

You can go to the online article here.

Here's some of the article below:

Nanocomp Technologies Inc. of Concord, N.H., the winner in this category, has developed a process to create large sheets of fabric and lengths of yarn using carbon nanotubes -- synthetic carbon molecules prized for their exceptional strength and conductivity.
Previously, manufacturers haven't been able to take full advantage of the special qualities of carbon nanotubes because they could only produce particles a few microns long -- less than the diameter of a human hair -- limiting their usefulness.

David Lashmore, co-founder and chief technology officer at Nanocomp, came up with a technique for creating nanotubes that are more than a millimeter long. The length made it possible for the company to make carbon-nanotube materials in sheets up to 3 feet by 6 feet.

The technology can also be used to manufacture lightweight, highly conductive yarns that can be used to make wiring and cables that have a fraction of the weight of traditional copper wires.

The company is still producing only limited quantities of its material, but it has received financing from the U.S. Army to help develop a lighter-weight alternative to body armor and is working with the Air Force to develop carbon-nanotube wiring for aircraft and satellites.

Congratulations to Nanocomp.