Intellectual Property Law

US Patent 7501024 - Carbon nanohorn production

Sumio Iijima is usually credited as the first to discover (or at least properly characterize) carbon nanotubes. This patent from Iijima's group teaches an apparatus for manufacturing a related type of carbon nanostructure called carbon nanohorns. Claim 1 reads:

1. A carbon nanohorn producing apparatus comprising:

a target holding unit which holds a graphite target;

a light source which irradiates a surface of said graphite target with light, said light source being a laser beam source, and an irradiation angle of a laser beam emitted by the laser beam source is from 30° to 6°;

a cooling unit which cools carbon vapor vaporized from said graphite target by said light irradiation; and a recovery unit which recovers said carbon vapor cooled by the cooling unit to obtain a carbon nanohorn, wherein said recovery unit includes a recovery chamber and recovery pipe which introduces said carbon vapor to said recovery chamber, and said cooling unit is configured to cool at least inside of said recovery pipe.

Full post as published by TinytechIP on March 11, 2009 (boomark / email).