About Us
FullerenesFullerene Technology
A reactor at Nano-C.
Nano-C owns and continues to develop the leading technology for the commercial-scale manufacture of fullerenes and other fullerenic materials. Nano-C’s II-G combustion-based process has significantly advanced fullerene production and offers an unprecedented order-of-magnitude improvement over its 1st generation technology licensed on a non-exclusive basis to a Japanese company. The II-G technology enables an increase in process that provides both high fullerene yield and purity.
The company's patented II-G process incorporates features critical for scaling-up to the commercial rates. This process is currently operating at pilot scale in Westwood with a capacity in place that can be easily scaled to several thousand kilograms per year.
With increasingly efficient production technology, Nano-C aims to speed the adoption of fullerene applications and extend them to bulk applications such as commodity polymers and materials.
The Evolution of Fullerene Manufacturing Technology
Carbon Arc Synthesis
Originally, fullerenes were produced by the carbon arc method developed at the University of Arizona. While this method does enable the production of the small quantities of fullerenes needed for laboratory research, the process is not scalable. It simply cannot produce the larger quantities necessary for significant commercialization.
Nano-C’s First Generation Combustion Synthesis Method
In 1991, Jack Howard of MIT's Chemical Engineering Department invented and patented the 1st generation combustion synthesis method for fullerene production, a significant advance over the carbon arc method. He licensed the technology from MIT and founded Nano-C in 2001.
Nano-C's II-G Combustion-Based Process
Nano-C's II-G combustion-based process represents an order of magnitude improvement over the 1st generation method, enabling both high throughput and high purity to occur simultaneously. In addition, the II-G process optimizes the conditions for fullerene formation and substantially eliminates the need for expensive post-processing. II-G technology is inherently scalable to meet the demanding requirements for commercialization.
Nano-C’s II-G is capable of producing >98% purity fullerenes or fullerene mixtures. Production conditions can be tailored to create materials optimized for specific customer requirements. Economical production of higher fullerenes—the rarer forms of carbon—is also possible. Nano-C continues to improve on its advanced II-G fullerene production process.
II-G also forms the basis for our core capability in producing single-walled carbon nanotubes and other nanostructured carbon materials and chemicals.