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Nano
Quarterly
With the coming of spring, most people think about growth, renewal, and planning
for the summer months. Similarly, we here at the Pennsylvania NanoMaterials
Commercialization Center have been busy planning for the year ahead. The
governing board of the Center has devoted
considerable time and effort with us to develop our first strategic plan. This
plan summarizes in one document the Center’s mission, vision, and major goals
for the year ahead. In addition, it describes how we strive to serve our
multiple stakeholders; small and large companies, university researchers and
start-ups, private and public investors, to help them commercialize advanced
materials technologies. For more information,
click here to view this document.
Another major project which has occupied us this winter is the development of
our new web site. At this new site, we have
provided considerably more detailed information on our services and how we help
our three major stakeholder groups; companies, universities and investors. A key
element of this new web site is a members-only section, which provides more
detailed information on our proposal process, and how to engage with the center
to develop your innovative new product ideas using nanotechnology. If you are
interested in becoming a member of the Center,
click here. The web site project was
made possible with the assistance of two of our partner organizations; Catalyst
Connection, and the Pittsburgh Technology Council.
As many of you know, our university partners are key stakeholders of the Center.
Currently, our three university partners are; Carnegie Melon University,
University of Pittsburgh and The Pennsylvania State University. This
month, the Center is pleased to announce that Lehigh University has become the
fourth university partner. Lehigh has a growing nanotechnology and advanced
materials research program, and we look forward to working with them to help
commercialize this research. You can learn more about Lehigh’s Center for
Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology at
http://www.lehigh.edu/nano
The last major effort this winter has been our third round invitation for
proposals for commercialization projects funded by the center. This round closed
on January 31 and we were very pleased to receive an excellent group of
submissions. The proposals are currently being reviewed by our Technical
Advisory Committee (link to list of TAC members) and the winners will be
announced later this month. For those of you who are interested in submitting a
proposal, go to our web site or call me at 412-918-4205. Watch our web site for
the announcement of the opening of the fourth round this spring.
Alan Brown, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center
Pittsburgh, PA
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Industry-University
Nanotechnology
Product Innovation Workshops
The Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center has established a
partnership with the Center for Innovation Management Studies (CIMS) at North
Carolina State University, to host a series of Industry-University
Nanotechnology Product Innovation Workshops in Pittsburgh in the spring of 2008.
These workshops are funded by
the National Science Foundation and are free to all university research faculty
and industry attendees.The methodology developed by CIMS for the workshops uses
a unique new model to facilitate the transfer of nanotechnology research into
commercial products.
CIMS has conducted a number of
these successful workshops with many outstanding universities, including Penn
State, Purdue, Northeastern and the University of Massachusetts. Notable
industry participants have been Xerox Corporation, BP, Armstrong World
Industries and Exxon Mobile. To date, the workshops have attracted 116
university and industrial attendees.
The workshop program hosted by
the PA Nano Center has the following goals:
- Help university researchers
define their nanotechnology capabilities in a format that industry can relate to
- Develop more focused new
product ideas with potential industry partners
- Facilitate researcher-industry
partnerships which are better equipped to submit proposals for funding by the PA
Nano Center
For more information, contact
the Center at 412.918.4205.
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Crystalplex
Corporation
Want an example of nanomaterials commercialization in action? Look no
further than local nanomaterials innovator, Crystalplex Corp. and its
one-of-a-kind Quantum Dot (QD) technology.
QD technology is nothing new to the life sciences and optoelectronics
industries. The ability of these semiconductor nanocrystals to covert
electricity and non-visible light into visible light at the nanometer scale has
proved to be incredibly valuable in a variety of applications. Traditionally,
QDs have been used as fluorescent tags to track cells and molecules in tissue
samples in basic life sciences research. The nanocrystals have also been
deployed as light emitters in liquid crystal displays (LCDs), light-emitting
diodes (LEDs) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).
However, despite growing applications in both of these markets, the inefficient
and costly manufacturing process used to create QDs currently limits the
widespread application of the technology. Known as “size-tunable” QDs, these
standard quantum dots are grown through a process whereby the color of the
nanocrystal dictates its physical size and subsequently its mass (e.g., QDs that
emit red light in the visible spectrum are considerably larger and heavier than
those that emit blue light).
Equipped with the intellectual property and the expertise to bring to market
“composition-tunable” quantum dots, Crystalplex completely eliminates this
variable from its nanocrystal growth process. Through its unique, multi-layered
approach, Crystalplex is able to create quantum dots that are identical in size,
shape and weight in any color.
“Our ability to control the growth of the nanocrystal in a multilayer fashion
allows for a quantum dot that is superior to standard QDs for a variety of
reasons,” Matt Bootman, CEO of Crystalplex, explained. “From a performance
standpoint, Crystalplex QDs are superior in terms of their electromechanical
properties and their photostability, which results in a longer display lifetime.
Additionally, there is a consistent quantum yield across the visual color
spectrum making all colors equally bright.
“In terms of cost and manufacturing, since all colors are equal in size and
mass, they all provide identical kinetics and processability for all colors in
dispersion, casting and printing operations,” Bootman continued. “This also
allows for easily scalable dot production, less expensive equipment, startup
materials and setup costs.”
As you can see, the market potential of Crystalplex’s superior QD technology is
substantial. In October 2007, the four-year-old startup was awarded $220,000 in
Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority funding through the NanoMaterials
Commercialization Center to further commercialize its next-generation quantum
dot technology.
Bootman explained that Crystalplex will continue to grow in the life sciences
marketplace by broadening the application of its disruptive quantum dot
technology across multiple biomedical industries. Additionally, the company is
poised to bring its composition-tunable QDs to the rapidly expanding
optoelectronic marketplace with a primary focus on the burgeoning LCD backlight
market.
“Crystalplex is not the same company it was 18 months ago,” Bootman asserted.
“We have expanded the focus of our QD technology to include not just
applications in the life sciences but also in optoelectronics. This is very
exciting for us because the market for our quantum dot technology is
substantially larger in this space. The commercial potential of Crystalplex has
gone through the roof.”
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Copyright © 2008
Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center.
All rights reserved.
Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center
2000 Technology Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
phone: 412.687.2700
fax: 412.687.5232
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