LAS VEGAS, Feb. 23, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The new Board of Directors and Management Team of Centaurus Diamond Technologies, Inc. (The ‘Company’ or ‘Centaurus Diamond Technologies’ or ‘Centaurus’) (OTCPINK:CTDT) are pleased to announce that the Company has entered the final phase of its proprietary Magnatek process, wherein specifications and guidelines are established for the commercial mass production of industrial diamonds.
Furthermore, we are proud to announce the expansion of our research and development team with the addition of Dr. Igor A. Levitsky. He has over 20 years of experience in technology development, experimental and theoretical study of physical/chemical properties of organic and composite materials including nano-carbons (carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, graphene), organic-inorganic nano-composite, ionomeric polymers, liquid crystals, and molecular aggregates.
Dr. Levitsky has a Ph.D. in Physics (1995), from the Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering, Kharkov, Ukraine, and an M.S. in Physical Optics in 1991 from the Department of Physics, Kharkov State University, Kharkov, Ukraine. He had a postdoctoral appointment at the Chemistry Department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1997-1999).
Dr. Levitsky is the founder and Vice President of Emitech, Inc. (www.emitechinc.com) and Corish, Inc. (subsidiary of Emitech); both are high-tech companies in the field of material science and nanotechnology.
Since 1999, Dr. Levitsky has been actively involved in R&D, including the SBIR program, when he worked as a Senior Scientist at the Altair Center (Shrewsbury, MA, 1999-2001) and as a Principal Scientist at Emitech, Inc. (Fall River, MA, 2002- present) and Corish, Inc. (Fall River, MA, 2014-present). As a Principal Investigator, he had multiple SBIR Phase I and Phase II awards (more than fifteen) from different government agencies such as DoD, DoE, NSF, DHS, and DoS (total amount received from the government grants is more than 5 million dollars). Most of these topics were related to the study of organic/inorganic nano-composites and applications of new scientific concepts to the development of novel nano-materials and opto-electronic devices: transparent conductive coating; nano-composite/hybrid solar cells; carbon nanotubes based photo-detectors, photo/electromechanical actuators; field effect transistors; and opto-chemical sensors based on photonic crystals.
Dr. Levitsky has more than sixty publications in peer-reviewed journals, nine patents and many presentations at local and international conferences (including invited talks). He is co-author of a book and two reviews related to carbon nanotubes (CNTs), CNT composites and porous silicon nano-composites for solar cells, photo-detectors, and chemo-sensors.
Dr. Levitsky is a member of the Material Research Society, reviewer for Nature Nanotechnology, Advanced Materials, ACS Nano, Applied Physics Letters, and other highly rated scientific journals. He is member of editorial board of the Journal Nano-medicine and Nanotechnology, the Journal of Nano-materials & Molecular Nanotechnology and the Journal of Solar Energy. Dr. Levitsky' s representative publications/patents can be found at www.emitechinc.com.
The proposed scope of work related to a new material synthesis and characterization is as follows:
Synthesis:
The graphite is an initial material for synthesis of expected new structures under high pulse pressure. However, a variety of nano-carbons can be utilized instead of the graphite, reasonably assuming that the outcome compound could depend on carbon atom organization in the initial material. Nano-carbons materials include:
• Carbon nanotubes (single-walled, multi-walled, functionalized with different groups, peapods, etc.)
• Fullerenes ( C60, C70, C84, others)
• Graphene
Material characterization:
Several methods can be employed for material characterization in order to determine the structural changes from amorphous (graphite) to quasi-ordered or ordered morphology.
• SEM/TEM (scanning electron transition electron micro scopy)
• SAXS (small angle X-ray scattering)
• High resolution optical imaging (x 1000)
• IR spectroscopy (FTIR)
In particular, using our FTIR spectrometer (Tenzor 27) IR spectra of initial (graphite, nano-carbons) and novel material can be recorded and compared. It is expected that ordered morphology should result in appearance of new specific bands in mid-IR similar to the diamond spectrum, while graphite spectrum has no bands in the same spectral range.
The following equipment and facilities are available to our Research and Development Team with the addition of Dr. Igor Levitsky:
Emitech, Inc. and Corish, Inc. have processing/analytical/optical/electronic equipment, which includes: Wet electrochemical etching station for fabrication of porous Si (PSi) photonic crystals (equipped with Keithley-238 and controlled by LabVIEW custom software) allowing us to fabricate various nano-porous structures, such as Micro-cavities, Bragg Reflectors, Rugate filters, with pore diameter in the range from 3-5 nm to 0.5- 1 microns; Programmable furnace (up to 1100 C) for oxidation of PSi structures; Spray-deposition station equipped with a digital air dispenser (EFD, Performus II), airbrushes (Badger Air-Brush Co); Hot plate with regulated surface temperature and in-situ control of the film thickness; and high speed centrifuge. We also have power meters, a mono-chromator, CCD spectrometers, FTIR spectrometer (Bruker, Tensor27) optical benches, and other optical parts and accessories, high precision source-measurement units/multimeters (Keithley 236/238/2000), digital/analog oscilloscopes, lock-in amplifiers, data acquisition systems, LabVIEW and TestPoint software and interfaces for data exchange/processing, function generators, spectrum analyzers, power sources, small area solar simulator, etc. In addition, Emitech/Corish has access to the equipment and instruments at Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center (ATMC, Fall River, MA), which include SEM, DSC, TGA, optical microscopy, surface engineering and bake tool, surface profilometer, spatterer, etc. (See more at www.atmc.umassd.edu/researchandlabs).
His addition to our Research and Development team will greatly assist the Company in driving the evolution and to help to expedite the final phase of the R&D to reach production milestones.
Throughout the experimental process, it is the Company’s goal to master the exact methodology of mass-producing diamonds and thus obtain the specifications that can assure maximum efficiency of the Magnatek Diamond Synthesis process. Once that is achieved, we will ramp up manufacturing of the Magnatek technology and apparatus to fully automate the process. The facility is already ISO-9002 compliant and it is anticipated to go into full production by the end of 2016.
About Centaurus Diamond Technologies, Inc.
Centaurus has been established to fully commercialize its proprietary, cost-efficient and high-volume diamond production method to provide industrial quality diamonds. The Company's patented technology enables the production of "cultured" diamonds that are chemically, atomically and structurally identical to natural diamonds. The Gemological Institute of America has tested the Company's "cultured" diamonds and has confirmed they are diamonds according to their testing protocols.
Safe Harbor Statement
:
This press release may contain certain "Forward-looking statements" relating to the business of Centaurus Diamond Technologies, Inc. and its subsidiary companies. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included herein, are "forward-looking statements." These forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes," "expects" or similar expressions, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those discussed in the Company's periodic reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on its website at http://www.sec.gov. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under the securities laws, the Company does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements.