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Pyrograf Products, Inc., an affiliate of Applied Sciences, Inc., was incorporated in 1996 to manufacture carbon nanofiber in commercial volumes under the trade name Pyrograf®-III. The nanofiber is currently being used to improve the electrical, thermal and mechanical properties of a wide variety of polymer based compositions. It is also being used for energy, power, and biological applications. 
Pyrograf®-III is a patented, highly graphitic, low-cost carbon nanofiber with properties approaching the theoretical values of graphite in almost every performance characteristic. Pyrograf®-III carbon nanofiber is a highly pure product with over 99.9% fibrous material and very low metal concentrations. Pyrograf®-III carbon nanofiber possesses a unique morphology not available in other nanomaterial producers. The Pyrograf®-III nanofiber has a tubular structure with the sidewalls composed of angled graphite sheets. This morphology termed "stacked cup" or "herringbone" generates a fiber with exposed edge planes along the entire surface of the fiber. These edge sites are highly reactive and allow chemical modification of the fiber surface for maximum mechanical reinforcement in polymer composites. This open architecture also facilitates rapid intercalation and de-intercalation of heterogeneous atoms. 
Pyrograf Products, Inc. currently offers two commercial types of carbon nanofiber in a dry powder form called PR-19 and PR-24. PR-19 has an average diameter of 150 nanometers while the PR-24 has an average diameter of 100 nanometers as measured by scanning electronic microscopic methods. These two types of fiber come in three grades with different surface energies, surface areas, and metal concentrations. |
