Pioneering Research in Nanotechnology

Our Research

TrimTabs continues to partner with leading universities and commercial research institutions to deliver advancements across the field of nanotechnology.

We focus on developing new applications for carbon nanotubes and improving production techniques to enhance ^performance and reduce costs. Our work has led to numerous publications and patents, positioning TrimTabs at the forefront of nanotube technology. Research areas include the development of CNT-enabled silicon anodes for batteries, CNT composites for enhanced mechanical properties, and CNT applications in thermal management systems. Our research efforts have successfully demonstrated nanotube wires made from recycled materials as a replacement for electrical, audio, and data cables.

We are always open to research partnerships so please contact us if you have applications or projects that you would like to explore with our team.

Peer Reviewed Publications

Howarth, J.R.; White, A.O.; Hedayati, A.; Niu, Y.; Palmer, R.E.; Tang, K.W. Interactions between Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes and Plankton as Detected by Raman Spectroscopy. Chemosphere 2022, 295, 133889, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.133889
‍Gangoli, V.S.; Yick, T.; Bian, F.; Orbaek White, A. From Waste Plastics to Carbon Nanotube Audio Cables. C 2022, 8, 9. https://doi.org/10.3390/c8010009
Gangoli, V.S.; Barnett, C.J.; McGettrick, J.D.; Orbaek White, A.; Barron, A.R. Increased Electrical Conductivity of Carbon Nanotube Fibers by Thermal and Voltage Annealing. C 2022, 8, 1.
https://doi.org/10.3390/c8010001
‍Orbaek White, A., Hedayati, A., Yick, T., Gangoli, V.S., Niu, Y., Lethbridge, S., Tsampanakis, I., Swan, G.; Pointeaux, L., Crane, A. et al. On the Use of Carbon Cables from Plastic Solvent Combinations of Polystyrene and Toluene in Carbon Nanotube Synthesis. Nanomaterials 2022, 12, 9.https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12010009
‍Tsampanakis, I.; Orbaek White, A. The Mechanics of Forming Ideal Polymer–Solvent Combinations for Open-Loop Chemical Recycling of Solvents and Plastics. Polymers 2022, 14, 112. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym1401011
Barnett, C.J.,McGettrick, J.D., Gangoli, V.S., Navarro-Torres, J., Watson, T., GG Maffeis, T., Barron, A.R., and Orbaek White, A. Controlled and permanent induced Fermi shifts and upwards band bending in ZnO nanorods by surface stripping with argon bombardment. Materials Lett. 2021, 30, 130288. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2021.130288
‍Barnett, C.J.,McGettrick, J.D., Shenoy, V.S., Kazimierska, E., Orbaek White, A. and Barron, A.R. Effect of Applied Pressure on the Electrical Resistance of Carbon Nanotube Fibers. Materials. 2021, 14, 9, 2106. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14092106
‍Barnett, C.J., Orbaek White, A. and Barron, A.R. Size dependent conduction characteristics of catalyst-multi-walled carbon nanotube junction. Carbon Lett. 2021, 1-7 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42823-020-00215-0
‍Saeed Khodabakhshi, Sajad Kiani, Yubiao Niu, Alvin Orbaek White, Wafa Suwaileh, Richard E. Palmer, Andrew R. Barron, Enrico Andreoli. Facile and environmentally friendly synthesis of ultramicroporous carbon spheres: A significant improvement in CVD method. Carbon, 2021; 171: 426 DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2020.08.056
‍Barnett, C. J., Gowenlock, C. E., Orbaek White, A. and Barron, A. R. Pressure dependent conduction of individual multi-walled carbon nanotubes: the effect of mechanical distortions. Nanoscale Advances, 2021, DOI: 10.1039/D0NA01021A

Barnett, C. J.; McCormack, J. E.; Deemer, E. M.; Evans, C. R.; Evans, J. E.; Orbaek White, A.; Dunstan, P. R.; Chianelli, R. R.; Cobley, R. J.; Barron, A. R. Enhancement of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Electrical Conductivity Using Metal Nanoscale Copper Contacts and Its Implications for Carbon Nanotube-Enhanced Copper Conductivity. J. Phys. Chem. C 2020, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.0c0500‍
‍Alvin Orbaek White. Weighing up the Future. The Mass Balance, the Circular Economy and Chemical Recycling. Academic J Eng. Stud. 2020, 1 (2). AES.000508.2020. (https://crimsonpublishers.com/aes/pdf/AES.000508.pdf
‍Nicholas T. Dee, Jinjing Li, Alvin Orbaek White, Christine Jacob, Wenbo Shi, Piran R. Kidambi, Kehang Cui, Dmitri N. Zakharov, Nina Z. Janković, Mostafa Bedewy, Jennifer Carpena-Núñez, Benji Maruyama, Eric A. Stach, Desiree L. Plata, and A. John Hart. Carbon-Assisted Catalyst Pretreatment Enables Straightforward Synthesis of High-Density Carbon Nanotube Forests. Carbon, 2019 (153), 196-205 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2019.06.083
‍Hedayati, A.; Barnett, C.J.; Swan, G.; Orbaek White, A. Chemical Recycling of Consumer-Grade Black Plastic into Electrically Conductive Carbon Nanotubes. C. 2019, 5 (2), 32 https://doi.org/10.3390/c5020032
‍Barnett, C. J., Evans, C., McCormack, J. E., Gowenlock, C. E., Dunstan, P., Adams, W., Orbaek White, A. and Barron, A. R. Experimental Measurement of Angular and Overlap Dependence of Conduction between Carbon Nanotubes of Identical Chirality and Diameter. Nano Letters, 2019, 19 (8), 4861–4865 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b00025
‍Barnett, C.J.; Gowenlock, C.E.; Welsby, K.; Orbaek White, A.; and Barron, A.R. Spatial and Contamination-Dependent Electrical Properties of Carbon Nanotubes. Nano Lett. 2018, 18 (2), 695-700.

Jinjing, Li.; Bedewy.; Orbaek White, A.; Polsen, E.S.; Tawfick, S.; and Hart, A.J. Highly Consistent Atmospheric Pressure Synthesis of Carbon Nanotube Forests by Mitigation of Moisture Transients. J. Phys. Chem. C 2016, 120 (20), 11277-11287.

Zhao, H; Wie, J.J.; Copic, D.; Oliver, C.R.; Orbaek White, A.; Kim, S.; and Hart, A.J. High-fidelity replica-molding of glassy liquid crystalline polymer microstructures. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2016, 8 (12), 8110-8117.

Corr, S. J.; Raoof, M.; Cisneros, B. T.; Orbaek, A. W.; Cheney, M. A.; Law, J. J.; Lara, N. C.; Barron, A. R.; Wilson, L. J.; Curley, S. A. Radiofrequency Electric-Field Heating Behaviors of Highly Enriched Semiconducting and Metallic Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes. Nano Res 2015, 8 (9), 2859–2870.

‍Orbaek, A; McHale, M; Barron, A. Synthesis and Characterization of Silver Nanoparticles for an Undergraduate Laboratory. J. Chem. Educ. 2015, 92 (2), 339–344.


‍Orbaek, A.W.; Morrow, L.E.; Maguire-Boyle, S.J.; Barron, A.R. Reagent control over the composition of mixed metal oxide nanoparticles. J. Exp. Nanosci. 2015, 10, 5, 324-349.

Andreoli, E; Suzuki, R; Orbaek, A.W.; Bhutani, M.S.; and Barron, A.R. Preparation and Evaluation of SWNT-PEI as Vectors for Pancreatic Cancer Treatment. J. Mater. Chem. B, 2014, 2, 4740-4747.

Maguire-Boyle, S.J.; Garner, D.J.; Heimann, J.E.; Gao, L.; Orbaek, A.W.; Barron, A.R. Automated method for determining the flow of surface functionalized nanoparticles through a mineral formation using plasmonic silver nanoparticles. Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts 2014, 16, 220–231.

‍Orbaek, A.W.; Aggarwal, N.; Barron, A.R. The development of a ‘process map’ for the growth of carbon nanomaterials from ferrocene by injection CVD. J. Mater. Chem. A, 2013, 1, 14122-14132 https://doi.org/10.1039/C3TA13543H
Orbaek, A.W.; Owens, A. C.; Crouse, C.A.; Pint, C. L.; Hauge, R. H.; Barron, A.R. Single walled carbon nanotube growth and chirality dependence on catalyst composition. Nanoscale 2013, 5, 9848-9859.

‍Orbaek, A.W.; Barron, A.R. Towards a ‘catalyst activity map’ regarding the nucleation and growth of single walled carbon nanotubes. J. Exp. Nanosci. 2013, DOI:10.1080/17458080.2013.794979.

‍Orbaek, A.W.; Barron, A.R. Complications pertaining to the detection and characterization of individual and embedded single walled carbon nanotubes by scanning electron microscopy. Nanoscale 2013, 5, 2790-2797.

Majumder, M.; Rendall, C.S.; Eukel, J.A.; Wang, J.Y.L.; Behabtu, N.; Pint, C.; Liu, T.Y.; Orbaek, A.W.; Mirri, F.; Nam, J.; Barron, A.R.; Hauge, R.H.; Schmidt, H.K.; Pasquali. M. Overcoming “Coffee-Stain” Effect by Compositional Marangoni Flow Assisted Drop-Drying. J. Phys. Chem. B 2012, 22, 6536–6542.

Alley, N.J.; Liao, K-S.; Andreoli, E.; Dias, S.; Dillon, E.P.; Orbaek, A.W.; Barron, A.R.; Byrne, H.J.; Curran, S.A. Effect of carbon nanotube-fullerene hybrid additive on P3HT:PCBM bulk-heterojunction organic photovoltaics. Synthetic Metals 2011, 162, 95-101.

‍Orbaek, A.W.; Owens, A.C.; Barron, A.R. Increasing the Efficiency of Single Walled Carbon Nanotube Amplification by Fe–Co Catalysts Through the Optimization of CH4/H2 Partial Pressures. Nano Letters 2011, 11, 2871-2874. https://doi.org/10.1021/nl201315j
‍Griffiths, S.M.; Singh, N.; Jenkins, G.J.S.; Williams, P.M.; Orbaek, A.W.; Barron, A.R.; Wright, C.J.; Doak, S.H. Dextran Coated Ultrafine Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles: Compatibility with Common Fluorometric and Colorimetric Dyes. Anal. Chem. 2011, 83, 3778-3785.

Alvarez, N.T.; Hamilton, C.E.; Pint, C.L.; Orbaek, A.; Yao, J.; Frosinini, A.L.; Barron, A.R.; Tour, J.M.; Hauge, R.H. Wet Catalyst-Support Films for Production of Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotubes. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2010, 2, 1851-1856.

Alvarez, N.T.; Orbaek, A.; Barron, A.R.; Tour, J.M.; Hauge, R.H. Dendrimer-Assisted Self-Assembled Monolayer of Iron Nanoparticles for Vertical Array Carbon Nanotube Growth. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2010, 2, 15-18.