Mitsubishi Monitor 0106 COVER STORY

- continued from the cover

Fullerene has some unique properties that captured attention immediately in the scientific community. It becomes superconductive at higher temperatures than other materials commonly used in superconductivity development. (To be sure, it still requires ultralow, cryogenic temperatures to manifest that property.) It absorbs free electrons--radicals--which would make it useful in cosmetics and sun screen for preserving skin tone. Applying vaporized fullerene to surfaces produces a protective layer of diamond.
In pharmaceuticals, modified fullerene could help fight cancer. It also has the useful property of filling a cavity in the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)--which causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)--and preventing the virus from replicating.
Fullerene research broadened in 1991, when Dr. Sumio Iijima, of NEC Corporation, discovered tubular carbon in vaporized soot. Dr. Iijima's tubes were only a few billionths of a meter in diameter. But they could be millions of times longer than their diameter and were stronger than steel. Carbon nanotubes could prove useful in such applications as quantum circuitry, display devices, and gas storage.

Here is a mix of bis-ferrocene and C60-fullerene at 143° Kelvin (-130° centigrade).

An eye for potential
Mikio Sasaki, now president of Mitsubishi Corporation, noted the commercial potential of fullerene in the early 1990s. At the time, he was heading the company's New York- based subsidiary.
Management at Mitsubishi Corporation was working to position the company as an active participant, rather than just a broker, in selected sectors of high technology. Fullerene fulfilled their investment criteria perfectly. It was rich in convincing but untapped potential. Most of all, fullerene presented opportunities for Mitsubishi Corporation to assert the company's core strengths in planning and coordinating projects, in forging and managing cross-border partnerships, in surveying previously unnoticed applications for technologies, and in moving technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace.

Carbon nanotubes, just billionths of a meter in diameter, are tremendously strong and can be vastly long. They offer exciting new possibilities for fullerene.

In 1999, Mitsubishi Corporation set up Fullerene International Corporation with two companies based in Tucson, Arizona: Materials and Electrochemical Research Corporation and Research Corporation Technologies. Materials and Electrochemical Research is the biggest U.S. producer of fullerene and related materials. Research Corporation Technologies is a license transfer company that specializes in commercializing new technology. Fullerene International brought some production equipment to Japan in May 2000, and its operation there has become a leading source of fullerene and related materials.

A leap of faith
Researchers at Fullerene International are at the forefront of global efforts to develop commercial applications for fullerene and carbon nanotubes. The biggest obstacle they face is cost. Fullerene costs about $100 per gram. That is a small fraction of what it cost only a decade ago. But it still is far too expensive for the material to be widely competitive in commercial applications. Advances in production technology and growing production volumes will bring the cost down further. And the pace of improvement is sure to accelerate as fullerene and carbon nanotubes become more easily available to researchers.
Dr. Raouf O. Loutfy, president of Materials and Electrochemical Research, reminded the participants at the International Fullerenes Workshop 2001 of Mitsubishi Corporation's role in fullerene development. "To introduce the first large- scale application, an organization had to take a leap of faith ... . Mitsubishi Corporation has been a leader and pioneer in recognizing the need to support a large-scale production effort to realize the fullerene and nanotechnology commercialization dream."

Mitsubishi Corporation president Mikio Sasaki addresses the International Fullerenes Workshop 2001, which his company hosted in February in Tokyo. Among the participants were Nobel laureates Kroto and Smalley.