US Patent 7956108 - Polymer coated nanotubes

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7956108.html

This patent has priority going back to May 30, 2003 and includes some basic claims for carbon nanotube-polymer composites. Claim 1 reads:

1. A composite material comprising

nanotubes; and

a polymer matrix wherein the nanotubes and polymer interact in an ordered fashion at an interfacial region so that the polymer wraps around the nanotubes, said region comprising a coating of polymer on the nanotubes in a crystalline or semi crystalline form, the interfacial region being between 5 and 160 nm in width.

US Patent 7569470 - Fabrication of nanowire arrays on vicinal surface

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7569470.html

This patent teaches a new method to manufacture nanowires based on deviations of the crystallographic orientation of a substrate on which the nanowires are grown. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method of preparing an array of conducting or semi-conducting nanowires comprising:

forming a vicinal surface of stepped atomic terraces on a substrate; and

depositing a fractional layer of dopant material to form nanostripes having a width less than the width of the atomic terraces;

wherein diffusion of the atoms of the dopant nanostripes into the substrate forms the nanowires.