Making Thinner Flat-Screen TVs

(Post: English)
"At 17, most people are stressed out over their next term paper. But Philip Streich of Platteville, Wis., is helping discover technologies to make flat-screen TVs as thin as a poster."

The home-schooled high school senior is part of Graphene Solutions, along with James Hamilton, a University of Wisconsin-Platteville chemistry professor, and Chief Executive Phillip Jackson (who, along with Hamilton, started Photonic Cleaning Technologies, another nanotech firm).

Using a spectrometer that Streich designed, the company has developed a process to dissolve materials previously thought to be insoluble, including carbon nanotubes and graphene sheets.

This breakthrough allows tiny nanotubes - a material that could one day replace silicon - to be processed and sold on an industrial scale.

The technology has battery and solar cell applications, too.

Graphene Solutions won the 2008 Wisconsin Governor's Business Plan Contest and has caught the interest of investors both at home and abroad.

The venture wants to raise $3.5 million in funding, and it plans to break even in three years on what Hamilton calls conservative sales of $12 million.

Source: BusinessWeek