Vanguard Magazine

historically, some of the lab-scale methods we used to make nanotubes used things like lasers and plasma discharges to pro- duce gram quantities of these," he says, pointing to a poster displaying magnified pictures of nanotubes on the wall. "This," he says while turning back to the machine, "is just an industrial analog to those types of technologies." Simply put, Kingston and Simard took a small machine that produces small amounts of BNNTs and used similar tech- nology to build a large machine capable of producing larger amounts of BNNTs. "This is basic plasma technology that's used in industry for lots of materials pro- cessing, materials transformation and waste processing." He says, matter-of- factly. The words "basic" and "plasma tech- nology" aren't typically used in the same sentence; in fact, the gravity of the ac- complishment is temporarily lost due to Kingston's unflinching modesty. He continues, trying to hit the point home: "The key for NRC is that we have this reactor in-house, and through our own operations we now have access to large quantities of these materials. We are now able to produce [BNNTs] at a factor of about 200 times more than what any- body else has previously demonstrated." Obviously, this is a major achievement. But something is missing. The nanotubes on the poster look like thin, grey rolled- up pieces of dryer lint. It's hard to imag- ine how BNNTs, even if there was literally tons of it lying around, could be stron- ger than steel. From what they've shown so far, Kingston and Simard have turned powder into small pieces dryer lint. The answer is composites. "The excite- ment around having access to boron ni- tride nanotubes at kilogram plus scales," Kingston says, "has allowed us to look at advanced composites made from those." Now that the NRC has access to BNNTs, Kingston and Simard will use in-house expertise — chemists, polymer experts, metals experts and composites people — to build larger prototypes of composite materials. That makes sense, but why not – with BNNTs going for $500USD per half- gram – just start selling them in raw form? Simard, who's left it largely to Kingston up until now to explain their accomplish- ment in painstakingly elementary terms, steps in to provide the answer. "Manu- facturing nanomaterials is a product, but it is in the added value products that you have a greater chance of having an impact on the manufacturing side." So, instead of flooding the market with their new, mass-produced BNNTs, the NRC wants to take it to the next level. Cha-ching. "This material is hard to work with," Simard says. "It's beautiful, it's strong, but in order to harness its properties we need to be able to tailor the service. We need to do chemistry on it so that it can be integrated into other types of materials," he explains. "Metal, ceramic, thermoplastic, thermosets like epoxies — this chemistry part is quite demanding in terms of effort, but of course, if you succeed, then you have advanced in the value stream." Simard's enthusiasm for his work is in- spiring. If the NRC is successful in creat- ing new and improved composites using BNNTs, it can then license those prod- ucts, like enhanced resin or ceramics. Af- ter that, it can start making specific com- ponents out of these materials, jumping further along into the value stream. In a nutshell, there's plenty more money to be made in the future as opposed to sell- ing out right now. "With boron nitride nanotubes, the cost is significantly ex- pensive, but in a short while, maybe ten years, it's just going to be a commodity." Benoit says. "This material is hard to work with," Simard says. "It's beautiful, it's strong, but in order to harness its properties we need to be able to tailor the service. We need to do chemistry on it so that it can be integrated into other types of materials." T TECHNOLOGY www.vanguardcanada.com OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015 21

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