> Martin SCHMID, Head of the global Baytubes® (Carbon Nanotubes) operation within Bayer MaterialScience AG.

Since July 1, 2005, Martin Schmid has been responsible for the development of the Baytubes® operation and its transfer from a project status to a new operational business activity. Martin Schmid was born on July 4, 1959 in Pforzheim, Germany. In 1979, he began his career at Bayer as an industrial sales trainee in Leverkusen, Germany. After completion of this traineeship, he worked as a Marketing assistant in the former Plastics division. From 1986 to 1994, he held several positions in Sales and Marketing both at Bayer plc in Newbury, England and in Leverkusen. In 1994, he was appointed Marketing Manager for Recycling within the Plastics division, and was responsible for global Purchasing, Marketing, and Sales until 2005.

What are the innovations that Bayer MaterialScience is presenting at Nano Tech 2008?

Bayer MaterialScience is presenting industrial applications of carbon nanotubes, in order to show that industrial carbon nanotubes applications are running. At the previous editions of the exhibition, the focus of BMS was more on prototypes and some high-end sports applications. This year, the products are industrial products such as the F1-EX-Nano, the first plastic transport drum to be made electrically conductive by Baytubes® carbon nanotubes. The drum was developed by Schütz GmbH & Co. KGaA and Bayer MaterialScience as part of a joint project study and is envisioned for use in explosion-protected zones. The new drum is an improvement on the F1-EX tight-head drum introduced two years ago; it is made of polyethylene in an extrusion blow molding process that uses Schütz's own Security Layer technology. It comprises three layers, with the thin outer layer containing Baytubes®. Apart from providing good conductivity, the use of carbon nanotubes also enhances the already excellent mechanical properties of the F1-EX-Nano drum. For example, the increased low-temperature impact strength of the polyethylene further improves the drum's low-temperature drop impact strength. Chemical resistance to the content of the drum is also improved. Schütz is currently examining the possibility of using multiwall carbon nanotubes in its other packaging products instead of carbon black systems. A forthcoming application of Baytubes® is the “md4-1000” remote-controlled flying camera, made by Microdrones. Amongst other possibilities, this product can be used during sporting events such as skiing, where it can transmit pictures live from the air. The use of carbon nanotubes means that the frame of the drone can be made even lighter than that of the previous model, without affecting stability. This greatly increases the maximum flight time of the camera. Aeronautics could be a potential market for these new composites made of epoxy, carbon fibers and carbon nanotubes, as there would be interest in reducing weight as well as in creating conductive structures. By measuring the resistivity, it may be possible to detect the cracks in the structure and thereby ease maintenance and increase safety.

 

What is the future of carbon nanotubes within Bayer MaterialScience?

Bayer MaterialScience expanded its production capacity of carbon nanotubes to 60 tons per year in 2007. Further capacity increase is planned in the coming years, 200 tons for the end of 2009 and over 3000 tons over the medium term. BMS currently believes it is one of the world’s top 3 multiwall carbon nanotube suppliers. MWCNT prices have already dropped in the past years and greater production capabilities will lead to a further price drop, making this material attractive for high volume applications. A wide range of new potential applications will then become possible. Carbon nanotubes are an excellent choice when it comes to making polymers conductive and increasing mechanical strength of composites.. Conductivity requires loadings of 0,1 to 5%, depending on the polymer of choice and mechanical reinforcement loadings are often below 1% wt, 0.1 to 0.2% can often be sufficient. Carbon nanotubes can also be used to mechanically reinforce aluminum or to increase thermal conductivity. Examples for conductivity-related technologies could be the development of bipolar plates for fuel cells or flexible, conductive TPU films in to be used in automotive application , e.g as flexible seat heating elements.

 

There are a lot of questions currently being raised about the toxicity and the possible adverse effects of nanomaterials. As a supplier of these materials, how do you handle this issue?

Bayer MaterialScience is well aware of these issues and is taking appropriate measures in order to increase the necessary knowledge level. . BMS is actually the only provider of carbon nanotubes which has developed a website dedicated to this question: www.baycareonline.com. There we describe our commitment to a responsible development of nanotechnology and we publish our Product Stewardship Principles with recommendations to ensure the safe production and use of nanomaterials The company is actively taking part in the NanoCare safety research project. This project carries out scientific work which focus in particular on characterization and toxicological properties of nanomaterials. Bayer is among the 13 companies, universities and research institutions that are contributing their expertise to the NanoCare partnership, which is sponsored by the German Ministry for Education and Research. These organizations are working together to develop generally accepted measuring and testing methods, that can then be used to assess the safety of nanomaterials.