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¡¡ EXA acquired Nanotech in 2007, and we plan to develop this business as the core of EXA for the foreseeable future, with a focus on thermal conduction as applied in heaters, radiators, displays, field emission displays (FED) and next generation semiconductors, with products such as CNT (commercialized), CNT heat film (commercialized), CNT heat plate (commercialized), radiant heat paste (developed and field testing), other radiant heat material (developed and field testing), TCFfilm (research stage) and film speakers (research stage).
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¢Â What are Carbon Nanotubes?
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are allotropes of carbon. A single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) is a one-atom thick sheet of graphite (called graphene) rolled up into a seamless cylinder with diameter on the order of a nanometer. This results in a nanostructure where the length-to-diameter ratio exceeds 10,000. Such cylindrical carbon molecules have novel properties that make them potentially useful in many applications in nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials science. They exhibit extraordinary strength and unique electrical properties, and are efficient conductors of heat. Inorganic nanotubes have also been synthesized.

Nanotubes are members of the fullerene structural family, which also includes buckyballs. Whereas buckyballs are spherical in shape, a nanotube is cylindrical, with at least one end typically capped with a hemisphere of the buckyball structure. Their name is derived from their size, since the diameter of a nanotube is in the order of a few nanometers (approximately 50,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair), while they can be up to several millimeters in length. There are two main types of nanotubes: single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) and multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs).

The nature of the bonding of a nanotube is described by applied quantum chemistry, specifically, orbital hybridization. The chemical bonding of nanotubes are composed entirely of sp2 bonds, similar to those of graphite. This bonding structure, which is stronger than the sp3 bonds found in diamond, provides the molecules with their unique strength. Nanotubes naturally align themselves into ¡°ropes¡± held together by Van der Waals forces. Under high pressure, nanotubes can merge together, trading some sp©÷ bonds for sp©ø bonds, giving great possibility for producing strong, unlimited-length wires through high-pressure nanotube linking.