Diverse patent-pending technologies will be described which have been developed in our NanoTech Institute at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD): (a) solid state fabrication methods for the manufacture of strong nanotube yarns1 and transparent nanotube sheets2 at industrially useable rates; (b) solution processing methods producing super-tough nanotube yarns; (c) artificial muscles3 with giant strokes and giant force generation capabilities that are powered by high energy density fuels; (d) novel generic methods for tuning the electrical, magnetic, and optical properties of conductors by giant charge injection; and (e) devices for thermal and solar harvesting, energy storage, energy conversion, electron field-emission, sensing, and light emission (three types of lamps and displays). UTD’s solid-state processed nanotube yarns1 are much tougher than graphite yarns, almost as tough as the Kevlar® used for anti-ballistic vests, and (unlike such organic polymers) are highly resistant to creep and to properties degradation due to chemical, thermal, or radiation exposure, abrasion, or knotting. UTD’s highly conducting nanotube sheets2 are both transparent and have higher gravimetric strength than the strongest steel plate and the Kapton® and Mylar® used for ultra-low-weight air vehicles and under evaluation for solar sails. Powered by fuels providing over 30 times the energy storage density of batteries presently used for autonomous robots and prosthetic limbs, UTD’s most easily deployable artificial muscles3 can simultaneously provide a hundred times the force generation of natural muscle, a hundred times the work per cycle, and larger strokes than natural muscle. UTD’s surprising generic method for charge-injection-based tuning of the bulk properties of electrolyte-free nanostructured materials avoids dopant intercalation and associated problematic structural changes. Implications are described for diverse devices that function without electrolyte contact for electrochemically switched elements, from electron field-emission sources to chem-FET sensors and magnets.
