Recently, the first domestic fullerene production line, established by Inner Mongolia Carbon Valley Technology Co., Ltd., was officially put into operation in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. It is clear that fullerenes were accidentally discovered by astronomers in 1985 when they were studying the composition of cosmic nebulae. Eleven years later, three scientists from the US and the UK received the Nobel Prize for the discovery of fullerenes. Today, fullerenes, carbon nanotubes and graphene have become the three members of the carbon nanomaterial family.

“The most common fullerene is C60, which consists of 60 carbon atoms connected by 20 six-membered rings and 12 five-membered rings. Carbon molecules, also known as football. Zhang Yongchun, director of the Inner Mongolia Carbon Center. The Valley Fullerene Industry Research Institute told the Economic Daily reporter that fullerene has a stable structure and unique physical and chemical properties, making it widely used in many fields, such as solar cells, magnetic resonance contrast agents, etc., and even in bioengineering. carriers, laser protection goggles, etc. are also useful.

As far as we know, only a few countries in the world have achieved mass production of fullerenes. Among them, there are several companies producing in the United States, the output is at the level of kilograms, and the price is very expensive; there are two companies in Russia, the output is also at the level of kilograms, and the cost is very high; fullerene production by the Japanese company Mitsubishi for the first time in the world reached 1000 tons. However, it is mainly used in the domestic military industry and is not sold abroad; my country has already included fullerene in the "Key Product Catalog of the 12th Five-Year New Materials Industry Plan" and included new nanocarbons in the "13th Five-Year Plan of Key Materials and Devices Projects".

Zhang Yongchun said that the economic value of producing fullerene base materials is huge, and the price of related foreign products ranges from 300 yuan to tens of thousands of yuan per gram, and sales are strictly controlled. Only through independent research and development, and continuous innovation in production, purification and separation technologies, we can no longer rely on imports and provide users with high-performance fullerene products, the price of which is much lower than the current market price.

Currently, Inner Mongolia Carbon Valley Technology Co., Ltd. has 7 invention patents and 7 utility model patents. In recent years, they have successfully launched civil products such as fullerene lubricating oil, fullerene antibacterial agent and fullerene cosmetics, and cooperated with material experts at home and abroad to add fullerene to aluminum and copper for the first time. material. Lightweight and high strengthThe laminated fullerene aluminum material obtained by it has an ultimate bending strength equivalent to No. 45 steel, but the density is only one third of that of steel. It is widely used in light aircraft, trains and automobiles; The prepared high-performance fullerene copper composite material has a friction coefficient of only one third of that of pure copper, which can improve performance in high-speed rail meshes, mechanical bearings, oil-impregnated bearings, copper-based balance weights, etc. In addition , fullerene is also of great research importance in the treatment of hepatitis C, influenza virus and anticancer drugs.

“The endless space to be developed for fullerene materials attracts research scientists in various fields to continue research and innovation. With the continuous progress of mankind, more and more new fullerene products will appear that will change human production and lifestyle. worth looking forward to,” said Zhang Yongchun.

He believes that the commissioning of the fullerene production line at the level of a ton will be aimed at industrializing this new type of carbon nanomaterial, forming a complete cluster of the fullerene production chain, which is of great importance to master the independent controllability of the main key technologies, ensure the protection of the country and enterprises to take advantage of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, and stimulate social and economic development.