The superiority of nanostructured materials continues to find real commercial applications. A hat tip to KurzweilAI.net for reporting this success from Zyvex Technologies for their proprietary carbon nanotube and graphene engineered composite material. From Zyvex News “The world’s first nano-enhanced carbon fiber downhill bike rim“:
The world’s first molecular nanotechnology company, Zyvex Technologies, and ENVE Composites announced an exclusive partnership to provide a bicycle rim specifically for downhill mountain biking that uses the latest advanced materials comprised of nano-enhanced carbon fiber. This new bicycle rim gives a significant competitive advantage to the downhill cycling market as proven during the last year in development and testing. The ENVE DH rim provides performance benefits to all downhill cyclists including those that compete at the highest levels of World Cup racing.
ENVE used Zyvex Technologies’ nano-enhanced carbon fiber technology called Arovex, which is a carbon nanotube and graphene engineered composite material that uses the proprietary Kentera technology to create chemical bonds on the carbon nanotubes. It provides an advantage in toughness without compromising strength. It also protects from fracture damage. ENVE has an exclusive license for this advanced technology for cycling applications.
ENVE developed the first nano-enhanced carbon fiber downhill bike with the intention of its riders winning a World Cup. After being in development for over a year, the rim carried ENVE sponsored rider Greg Minnaar (see photo) to victory at the 2012 World Cup opener in South Africa.
It will be a long road from nanostructured composites to complex molecular machine systems, but successful early steps provide incentives to continue along the development road.
—James Lewis, PhD
