As industries worldwide race to secure advanced materials for next-generation technologies, Gadhadar Reddy believes India has a significant opportunity to emerge as a serious player in the global nanomaterials value chain. Through NoPo Nanotechnologies, the country’s only manufacturer of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), the company is working to reduce India’s reliance on imports while building capabilities in a material increasingly seen as critical for sectors ranging from batteries and semiconductors to aerospace and advanced electronics. In this interaction with Tech Achieve Media, Reddy talks about NoPo’s proprietary HiPCO technology, its scale-up ambitions, and why locally developed deep-tech innovation will be key to India’s advanced manufacturing future.
TAM: As the only Indian manufacturer of SWCNTs, how is NoPo Nanotechnologies positioning itself against global players, particularly in terms of scale, cost, and performance?
Gadhadar Reddy: NoPo’s positioning is best understood structurally rather than as a scale contest. The global SWCNT market is currently anchored by a small set of producers — OCSiAl, Zeon Nano Technology, Meijo Nano Carbon, Thomas Swan, Chasm Advanced Materials and a few others — operating across distinct synthesis routes (aerosol CVD, super-growth CVD, eDIPS, and HiPCO). OCSiAl controls 97% of the current market supply. All other players are trying to scale up the production. We plan to be the second in the market to scale to tons of production quantity and we will achieve this goal by next year.
NoPo’s competitive position is defined by the HiPCO® process itself. HiPCO, trademarked by NoPo, stands for high pressure carbon monoxide process and is known to produce very high quality SWCNT. On performance, our material is characterised by small diameters (typically 0.6–1.2 nm) and a narrow chirality distribution. Small diameters are known to give better conductivity which is critical for battery and other applications requiring ESD or EMI shielding properties. Narro chiral distribution matters for electronic and electrochemical applications where structural uniformity governs device behaviour. On cost, due to our technology as well local sourcing from India we are able to compete with the largest player in the market. For Indian customers, due to savings in transportation costs and duties we are a more affordable solution.
TAM: Your proprietary HiPCO process is central to your innovation; what tangible advantages does it offer over conventional nanotube manufacturing methods?
Gadhadar Reddy: The HiPCO process — high-pressure carbon monoxide process operates by growing SWCNTs in flowing CO at 30–50 atm and 900–1100 °C on iron catalyst clusters formed in situ from iron pentacarbonyl decomposition. Several attributes distinguish it from alternative routes:
First, it is an all-gas-phase, catalyst-free-substrate process. HiPCO is continuous process, and thus maintains consistency of SWCNT produce over the years. The advantage for the customers is that they get the same quality and consistency of material over a long period of time when they scale their application from R&D to commercial scale.
Conventional CVD requires a solid substrate or supported catalyst, which constrains throughput and introduces support-removal steps. Arc-discharge and laser-ablation methods produce high-quality SWCNTs but are inherently batch processes with limited scalability.
Second, HiPCO produces small-diameter, high-purity material. SWNT material of up to 97 mole-% purity has been demonstrated, with diameter distributions centred in 1nm range. Smaller diameters correspond to larger band gaps in semiconducting tubes, which is relevant for transistor and sensor applications.
Third, the feedstock is a single carbon source (CO), which simplifies process chemistry and post-synthesis cleanup compared to hydrocarbon-cracking CVD routes that co-produce amorphous carbon.
TAM: With applications spanning semiconductors, EV batteries, and aerospace, which sector is closest to large-scale adoption of nanomaterials, and why?
Gadhadar Reddy: Composites, coatings, and ESD applications are already at commercial scale. SWCNTs at loadings as low as 0.01–0.1 wt% impart electrostatic discharge protection, mechanical reinforcement, and conductivity to polymers, elastomers, and floorings. This segment has been generating SWCNT revenue for over a decade and is where Indian downstream demand is most immediate.
Battery applications — specifically silicon-rich anodes — are the fastest-scaling segment. SWCNT dispersions are now being used in silicon-rich anodes, high-energy cathodes and solid-state chemistries, because silicon expands substantially during lithiation and shorter or sparser carbon networks fail to maintain electrical contact across cycles. SWCNTs solve this through long, flexible conductive bridges. This is moving from qualification to serial production across all battery makers.
Semiconductors (CNT field-effect transistors, interconnects) and aerospace structural applications — including hypersonic thermal-protection systems, which is part of NoPo’s longer-horizon roadmap — remain at the prototype-to-pilot stage. The physics is favourable but qualification cycles in these industries are measured in years.
TAM: Given your collaborations with global chipmakers and battery firms, how do you see India fitting into the global nanomaterials and advanced manufacturing value chain?
Gadhadar Reddy: India’s industrial policy has, over the past four years, made an explicit pivot toward upstream materials. The India Semiconductor Mission 2.0, announced in the Union Budget for 2026–27, identifies development of materials supply chains, semiconductor equipment manufacturing, indigenous IP creation, and chip design as its core focus areas. The Electronics Components and Manufacturing Scheme launched in April 2025 has already attracted investment commitments of Rs 1.15 lakh crore as of September 2025.
India’s natural position in this chain is at the intersection of three endowments: a deep design talent base, a chemicals and minerals industry capable of feedstock supply, and a cost structure that supports R&D-intensive specialty materials manufacturing.
NoPo’s role is narrow and specific: to ensure that a critical advanced material — SWCNTs — is produced inside India rather than imported. NoPo has over the years developed technology to produce single chiral SWCNT which can be used as direct band gap material. Researchers across the world are using this material to develop next generation transistors, and sensors. NoPo also has the knowhow on using this material on wafers to make it easier for their customer to adopt SWCNT based solutions. As India advances towards producing infrastructure for quantum technology, AI and data center requirements, SWCNT can play a critical role in this journey. No other material is as versatile!
TAM: Since Sustainability is a key focus, can you elaborate on how local sourcing and your production processes contribute to a greener supply chain while maintaining high performance?
Gadhadar Reddy: More than 90% of the parts that go into our reactors are sourced from India. 100% of our feedstock is sourced from India. The output is SWCNT which is known to conductive material CO2 emissions up to 26%. At loadings of 0.01–0.1 wt%, SWCNTs measurably improve the mechanical, electrical, and thermal performance of host materials. In battery anodes, the same conductive network that enables silicon-rich chemistry also extends cycle life — demonstrated to increase silicon anode cycle life by up to 4 times. A battery that lasts four times as long displaces three replacement batteries; that is a lifecycle benefit no incremental process improvement at the synthesis stage can match. At NoPo, we have also tested at lab scale use of CO2 to convert to high purity CO which can be a direct feedstock in our operations. Once scaled up, we can work with high CO2-producing industries like steel/ oil&gas and use direct capture CO2 to convert into a highly useful and efficient material SWCNT.
