Carbon nanotubes for power applications

Carbon nanotubes have been found to possess a wide variety of extremely remarkable properties, most notably high electrical and thermal conductivity, mechanical strength, and catalytic surface area. These properties imbue carbon nanotubes with tremendous Potential for a variety of power generation and storage devices including: lithium-ion (Li+) batteries, polymeric solar cells, proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, and thermionic power devices. A review of the key issues surrounding synthesis, characterization, and processing of carbon nanotubes in relation to device fabrication will be highlighted. Results on a variety of prototype devices which are being developed by the NanoPower Research Laboratories (NPRL) at RIT in collaboration with researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center will be presented. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.