"Russia beat Japan in the development of high-tech raw materials." After reading this phrase, I may be suspected of falsification. The raw materials industry is an important area in which Japan is highly competitive to this day. There are mostly negative reviews about Russian raw materials, but in the production of one material Russia still managed to bypass us,”writes Kotaro Watanabe.
Russia defeated Japan in the development of high-tech raw materials …
After reading this phrase, I may be suspected of falsification. The raw materials industry is an important area in which Japan is highly competitive to this day. Many Japanese products are at the top of the global rankings: high-strength steel, carbon fiber, alloy steel, and so on.
At the same time, as for the Russian raw materials industry, high-quality products are rare: titanium can be called offhand, but mostly it has bad reviews.
For example, the Russian galvanized sheet metal, which is used in the automotive industry, cannot be compared with the Japanese. Indeed, Russian metal is simply coated with a layer of zinc. If you bend it a little, then the zinc leaves. The problem isn't just zinc. The thickness of the sheets is not maintained; there are also many impurities in the metal.
It is impossible to make a high quality product from such sheet metal. In Russia, it is completely unrealistic to achieve Japanese quality. One of the reasons is the weak capacity of the raw materials industry.
However, with regard to the development of carbon nanotubes that increase the performance of lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles, it seems that Russian products have really bypassed Japanese ones.
Carbon nanotubes have become a long-awaited new material with high capacity and density.
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Nevertheless, this material was very expensive: several tens of thousands of yen per gram; ten times more expensive than raw gold. It was impossible to make products from such material at an acceptable price, so no one could find a use for it.
And all of a sudden, the Russian branch of Oksial (OCSiAl) developed a method for producing carbon nanotubes at a price of 300 yen per gram. Indeed, a logistics system was created and sales began at the stated price.
What are carbon nanotubes
Carbon nanotubes are molecular-sized tubes rolled up from carbon atoms.
As can be seen from the carbon crystal, the carbon atom has strong interatomic bonds, due to which the material has such physical properties as strength and so on.
Carbon nanotubes can withstand currents a thousand times greater than copper; have a thermal conductivity of about seven times that of copper; their strength is 8 to 80 times that of carbon fiber.
As the name suggests, these tubes are nano-sized, so there is no use on their own. However, since they have advanced physical properties, adding them can improve the performance of the final material.
For example, if you add carbon nanotubes to plastic, it can conduct electricity.
Because very little is added, the clear plastic remains transparent. It looks like ordinary plastic, but it conducts electricity.
Currently, the greatest expectations are related to the improvement of the performance of the second generation batteries for electric vehicles. Carbon nanotubes conduct electricity well. They are long and not very wide. The tubes form interconnections that facilitate the formation of a conduit for electric current.
When added to a powder, they connect the particles by conduction. By adding carbon nanotubes to the material from which lithium-ion batteries are made, battery performance can be improved by allowing the particles to conduct better.
In addition, the Japanese National Institute of Materials Science and the Agency for Science and Technology are developing another type of battery: lithium-air batteries using carbon nanotubes in the cathode. The capacity of such batteries is 15 times that of lithium-ion batteries. Research is carried out jointly with SoftBank.
A chemical reaction in the battery promotes the accumulation of particles that impede the flow of electrical current.
Carbon nanotubes change shape and accumulate such particles, but because they have the ability to form channels through which electricity can more easily pass, they support the flow of electricity inside the battery. This characteristic of carbon nanotubes provides a large battery capacity.
Previously, it was known that carbon nanotubes can improve the performance of various products, but they were not used because of the cost ten times the price of gold.
Despite the fact that a small amount of carbon nanotubes can improve physical properties, their addition to raw materials significantly increases the cost of the product, and even greatly exceeds the cost of the starting material.
There are two types of carbon nanotubes: single-walled and multi-walled. Single-layer ones outperform multi-layer ones, but their price was too high. In this regard, research was carried out in the field of methods for the production of inexpensive single-walled carbon nanotubes.
In Japan, similar research is being carried out by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, with the participation of companies such as the Zeon Corporation and so on. This project is under government control.
Japanese developments didn't end in failure
The efficiency has increased three thousand times over the original method. Japan is now capable of producing single-walled carbon nanotubes 500 times longer. Originally, monosyllabic pipes cost several tens of thousands of yen per gram, but now they are manufactured at a price of 1000-2000 yen per gram. Moreover, Japanese single-walled carbon nanotubes are superior in purity to Russian samples.
Nevertheless, the Russian Oksial (OCSiAl) has developed a technology for applying single-walled carbon nanotubes to powdered metal. It manufactures single-layer tubing for 300 yen per gram. Japanese samples are cleaner, but three times more expensive.
Unfortunately, for Japanese single-walled carbon nanotubes, this purity is not required for production at the moment.
(Since Japanese nanotubes are characterized by purity, if electronic components are developed that require such purity, the value of Japanese designs will increase dramatically.)
Single-walled carbon nanotubes exist in order to increase the strength, electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity of a material, and therefore, these properties are required of them. Even if they contain impurities, this does not mean a negative impact on such characteristics.
Apparently, Oxial products are sufficient to increase the performance of lithium-ion batteries. The logistics system of the Russian company, according to which it offers single-layer pipes at a price of 300 yen per gram, is gradually developing.
Moreover, Japan cannot supply this type of product at such a low price. We can say that at present the Russian single-walled carbon nanotubes have defeated the Japanese ones.
The work of an engineering plant in Germany.
Russia has succeeded in providing products similar to those in Japan at three times the price. Japanese research was effective, but Russian research was more effective.
In general, the level of Russian industry and technology is not high enough, but if you search carefully, you can find technologies in Russia that are much superior to Japanese ones. This makes Russia interesting.
Will Russia start producing first-class products?
So, will Russia produce products that surpass Japanese ones? Most probably not. Even if we imagine that advanced technologies will appear in Russia, there will be no point in them if they do not find practical application.
Russian industry is not distinguished by its large scale and diversification. Even if new technologies appear, it is difficult for them to find application in Russia. It is not easy to innovate there in practice.
In addition, in order to produce products such as cars that combine different technologies, a level of technology and quality above average is required.
In this sense, Russia is very poorly balanced. Even if we take single-walled carbon nanotubes, then by themselves they are not final products; therefore, their commercialization requires a combination with other technologies.
The fact is that in Russia you can find high world-class technologies, similar to the carbon nanotubes of the OCSiAl company.
Japan has succeeded in industrialization and commercialization, so if it digs up and finds practical applications for such Russian technologies, it could result in fruitful cooperation between Japan and Russia.
Kotaro Watanabe