It can produce 500 grams of silver nanowires per day at a cost of US$20/gram.
It is quite tricky to synthesize nanomaterials such as nanowires and nanotubes in large quantities. The materials must be synthesized to obtain a uniform range of nanowire diameters with variations.
A new process developed by Indian scientists can reduce the cost of large-scale manufacturing of nanomaterials (silver nanowires). This low-cost synthesis method can produce silver nanowires at a scale of 500 grams per day, at a cost of US$20/gram, and the market price is US$250/gram to US$400/gram.
This process produces silver nanowires with excellent conductivity. The process can also be used to make conductive inks and coatings for display technology and flexible electronics.
The scientists pointed out, “This is the first continuous process ever to synthesize functional nanomaterials (silver nanowires), which has excellent product quality (nanowire aspect ratio>1000) and very low cost (~ 20 USD/g) scale (500 g/day) and pilot plant area, no more than 6 square meters. Compared with the existing batch manufacturing scheme, this process is a simple, economical and scalable synthesis route , Can even generate many nanoparticles in the suspension, these nanoparticles are not easy to separate from the nanowires. The developed process has been tested in the CSIR-NCL characterization facility and is at the 8th stage of the technical preparation level."
Dr. Amol A. Kulkarni led the research of the CSIR National Chemical Laboratory in Pune.
This technology can enable Indian industry to enter the niche field of electronic chemicals and ultimately open up new job opportunities.
CSIR-NCL has licensed the process technology to Nanorbital Advanced Materials LLP (Ahmedabad) in November 2020, and signed material transfer agreements with three other industries in 2021. In the future, Dr. Amol plans to test the developed nanomaterials on different displays for transparent conductive applications and flexible electronic printing devices, including wearable electrodes.
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