US Patent 7850798 - Flash welding of conducting polymer nanofibers

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7850798.html

Due to their high surface area nanostructured materials often have heightened sensitivity to radiation and light. This patent from the Regents of the University of California takes advantage of this property by exposing the nanofibers to a light flash which melts individual nanowires and integrates the nanowires into a continuous film. Claim 1 reads:

1. A process for welding together nanofibers consisting of one or more thermosetting conjugated electrically conductive polymers, the nanofibers collected as a random mat, comprising

exposing the random mat of said nanofibers of said one or more thermosetting polymers to a burst of a high intensity flash of light.