Monday, September 15, 2008

Nanotube maker Nano-C wins pair of manufacturing patents

By Mass High Tech Staff

Westwood-based nanotechnology company Nano-C Inc., has been awarded two new patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office covering the company’s carbon nanotube and fullerene manufacturing process.

The patents, numbered 7,335,344 and 7,396,520, provide the company with a competitive advantage in the marketplace and allow the company to offer carbon nanotubes and fullerene products tailored to specific applications, according to Viktor Vejins, Nano-C president and CEO. Specifically, Vejins cited organic photovoltaic and electronics as potential applications.

Nano-C’s core technology is an energy and environmentally efficient combustion-based process for manufacturing nano-scale carbon structures. The technology was invented by MIT professor emeritus and Nano-C founder Jack Howard, who died this past July, after a year-long battle with a malignant brain tumor.

Founded in 2001, Nano-C has raised $5.5 million in private funding, as well as more than $3.5 million in grant funding, including $2.9 million through a three-year National Institute of Standards and Technology project awarded last fall.

Nano-C’s board of advisors reflects the company’s roots in academia and includes Boston College chemistry professor Lawrence Scott, MIT chemistry department head Timothy Swager and professor emeritus in the Department of Materials Science at MIT John Vander Sande.