About Us
Located in Riverside, California, Carbon Solutions, Inc. (CSI) was established in 1998 with the goal of manufacturing single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), in bulk quantities. The company has become one of the leading nanotechnology companies due to its reputation for producing high quality carbon nanotube materials for commercial sale. CSI is the acknowledged leader in the development of purity evaluation techniques and was the first to develop quality control and quality assurance criteria for industrial sales of carbon nanotubes.
The company is able to produce carbon nanotubes that are suitable for virtually any application by virtue of its ability to chemically process the SWNTs so as to introduce the necessary chemical functionality for compatibility with common industrial processes. The company currently has strong business relationships with leading companies interested in the development of carbon nanotube-based sensors, flexible electronics, transparent conductors, infrared and visible photodetectors.
The company’s products are carried by the leading chemical wholesalers and are also available directly from CSI. The company has a number of contracts for specialty manufacturing and if you are interested in seeing if carbon nanotubes can improve your products we invite your enquiries. CSI has been the recipient of numerous SBIRs and STTRs from funding agencies such as NSF, DARPA, HSARPA, AFOSR and ONR.
Our Founder
Robert C. Haddon
Professor Haddon spent most of his career at Bell Laboratories (AT&T, Lucent Technologies), where he was Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in the Materials Chemistry Department. In 1997 he was appointed Professor of Chemistry and Physics at the University of Kentucky, and in 1998 he became Director of the Advanced Carbon Materials Center (NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center). In 1998 he co-founded CarboLex, Inc, a company that produces and sells single-walled carbon nanotubes. In 1999, he founded Carbon Solutions, Inc, a company that is focused on the chemical processing and dissolution of carbon materials for advanced applications. In 2000, he was appointed Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical & Environmental Engineering and Director of the Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineerin(CNSE) at the University of California at Riverside (UCR).
His research interests have been directed toward the electronic structure and properties of molecules and materials, with particular emphasis on transport, magnetism, superconductivity, device fabrication, nanotechnology, and the discovery of new classes of electronic materials. He was named 1991 Person of the Year by Superconductor Week, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society “For work on organic electronic materials, including the prediction and discovery of superconductivity in alkali-metal-doped carbon-60.”
Professor Haddon served as President and CEO of Carbon Solutions, Inc until 2006, before assuming his present position as Chief Technical Advisor to the company.
Carbon Solutions (CSI) is the company that put the “C” in carbon nanotubes – where “C” stands for chemistry.
Meet Our Executive
Elena Bekyarova, President and CEO
Elena Bekyarova received her PhD degree in Chemistry from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 1995. As Senior Researcher at the Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry (Bulgaria) she worked on the synthesis, characterization, adsorption properties and catalytic activity of activated carbon – supported catalysts for environmental remediation. From 2001 to 2002 she worked on the processing and characterization of advanced carbon nanotube structures for energy storage as an STA postdoctoral fellow at the Japan Science and Technology Corporation. In 2003 she joined the research group of Professor Robert C. Haddon at the University of California – Riverside, where she pursued research on the purification, chemical modification and characterization of carbon nanotubes and their application for electronic devices with a focus on chemical and bio-sensors. In 2006 Dr. Bekyarova accepted the position of President and CEO of Carbon Solutions Inc.
Dr. Bekyarova has extensive experience in the synthesis, processing and characterization of carbon-based materials with a particular focus in the chemistry, processing and purification of carbon nanotubes and the fabrication of electronic devices, functional structures and composites based on carbon nanotubes.
Our Vision
Just as in the case of the fullerenes, the scientific investigation of carbon nanotubes was initially carried forward by those scientists interested in their physical properties. As the fullerene field matured, chemistry came to the forefront and this transition is currently underway in area of carbon nanotubes.
We view carbon nanotubes as macromolecules that should be ideal constituents of polymers, copolymers, polymer composites, electronic materials and biological structures where their outstanding physical properties, such as high strength, exceptional thermal conductivity, and singular electronic properties distinguish them from all other nanomaterials.
Our vision for the field remains intact: “…if the [single-walled carbon nanotubes] SWNTs are to achieve their full potential, it will be necessary to bring about chemical modification of the basic structure. The ability to disperse and perhaps dissolve the SWNTs would greatly improve the prospects for processable materials that can be aligned and formed into useful structures. Chemical functionalization would be an important step in this direction as well as opening up interesting opportunities in its own right. If it were possible to chemically modify the surface of the nanotubes in a controlled manner, this would afford a number of opportunities for tailoring the structural and electronic properties.”
The issues that face the nascent carbon nanotube industry are frequently underestimated in the scientific literature and the press releases, and quality control is virtually nonexistent. Carbon nanotubes still cost more than gold, most preparations are highly impure and many of the purifications reported in the literature do not work as stated. CSI was established to aid in the transition of carbon nanotubes from a research curiosity to a specialty chemical and finally into a commodity that is found in a wide range of useful products that require the performance of the ultimate carbon nanofiber.
We would welcome the opportunity to work on your application. If you can foresee a long term use for carbon nanotubes and would like help in getting started in this area of nanotechnology please contact CSI. We offer consulting services and specialty manufacturing in all aspects of carbon science.