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A new model of collaboration for generating lead markets for products based on carbon nanotubes
von Dr. Péter Krüger
Carbon nanotubes (CNT) were discovered several decades ago and have been the focus of intensive scientific and technical research in an extremely wide range of fields ever since. Due to their outstanding properties and exciting combinations thereof, they set the scientific community afire with enthusiasm. However, the transfer of CNT synthesis from the laboratory to production on an industrial scale took a great deal of time, so that CNT only recently became available in commercially relevant quantities and qualities at competitive prices. Despite the multitude of potentially highly promising scientific and industrial applications for CNT, the actual use of CNT-based materials has remained far behind expectations. In addition to the technical and application-based challenges along the value chain, issues with regard to complex intellectual property landscapes as well as potential safety issues pose obstacles to market penetration.
The Innovation Alliance Carbon Nanotubes – Inno.CNT (www.inno-cnt.de) was founded in order to focus on solutions for the above described challenges. With 90 partners in industry and academic research, this cluster of 27 crosslinked projects is developing fundaments for technologies and applications for CNT-based materials. As an interdisciplinary collaborative network of public and private entities, Inno.CNT currently has a total budget of EUR 90 million for a period of six years, roughly half of which is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Within the Alliance, twenty-two projects focus on sustainable applications in the areas of energy/environment, mobility, lightweight construction, and electronics. Three projects are dedicated to basic technologies regarding the manufacture, functionalization, modification and dispersion of CNT. Finally, two platform projects are considering safety issues throughout the various phases of CNT product lifecycles.