Dr. Steven Walsh, Distinguished professor at the University of New Mexico and Regents Professor at UNM’s Anderson School of Management, MANCEF Board Member, Institute Professor for Entrepreneurial Renewal at the University of Twente; Victor Chavez, Former Technology Transfer Professional of the Year from the US Federal Laboratory Consortium; Robert Tierney, Ph.D. ABD University of Twente; Dr Shawn Liao, Kang-Shyang Liao, Senior Scientist at the Institute for NanoEnergy at the University of Houston and CTO of C-Voltaics; Dr. Seamus Curran, Director of the Institute for NanoEnergy at the University of Houston and CEO of C-Voltaics
Dr. Seamus Curran’s SCHN coating is one of the first nanotechnologies products focusing on the mass marketplace with covalently bonding nanoparticles designed to prevent degradation. As many firms and organisation have already stated, nanomaterials are likely to be the first mass marketed nanotechnology based products. The problem with many of today’s fabric coating products is that they do not ‘wear well’ when deposited on fabrics and are not very scratch resistant when put on fabrics or other surfaces.
Most of the current nanotechnology coating solutions for repelling stains and preventing scratches on a variety of surfaces are first generation nanotechnology solutions. There are deposited so they are electro-statically or at best ionically bonded to the surfaces they are deposited on. This means that the repelling ability of many first-generation nanocoated fabrics degrades rapidly with washing or use and very few can pass normal abrasion testing. The new, second-generation nanocoatings are covalently bonded. Dr. Curran’s technology led to the development of SCHN (Self-Cleaning Hydrophobic Nanocoating) nanotechnology based coatings. This process vastly improved durability, temperature range, adherence and abrasion resistance. These coatings are among the first nanocoatings product families to meet standard scratch test procedures. The SCHN 107 for glass for example showed no degradation after 10,000 rub tests with a 0.5 kg load.
As with most if not all novel products, SCHN was developed by C-Voltaics to meet a need or a problem that could not be solved using more traditional techniques. The genesis for making the SCHN range of products came from a desire to reduce the shading that occurs on solar panels and results in them requiring constant cleaning. This has been the unspoken nightmare of the solar industry. This shading was a particular problem for a C-Voltaics product line. It became clear that they required vastly improved coatings.
As no suitable coating was available in the market, with the aid of funding from the Navy, these coatings were developed with great success for photovoltaic use. However, it was soon discovered that the coatings made (measuring approximately 7 nm in height) could be added to other products such as garments and carpets. This has been extended to masonry, wood and plastics.
C-Voltaics is a nanotechnology company that has developed IP that has applications across many industries. The primary product is a self-cleaning hydrophobic nanocoating (SCHN) range that can be used to keep surfaces clean and dry. These coatings also act as thermal, abrasion and in some cases anti-microbial in nature, providing customers multifunctional coatings.
Initially the SCHN range was envisioned for applications in the solar industry but recent exposure has expanded to applications in the glass, fabric and construction industries, notably having numerous applications in the auto and tarpaulin industry. The diversity of applications for the SCHN range may be defined as products needing protection from water based liquids, staining, environmental damage and tarnishing which also include protection in anti-bacterial/antimicrobial environments.
While nature has given us a few examples, chemically we have tried to do the same thing with differing levels of success. It comes down to the following: can we replicate it and can we do it cheaply and effectively? The answer to the first question is obviously yes, but the cost and effectiveness is a challenge. It is possible to get a spray to produce a ‘hydrophobic coating’, but this method is very short-lived and not very durable. The reason is that the particles physically stick to the surface rather than being chemically bound to it. The other method is to chemically bind the particles to a surface. The problem with this method is that manufacturers in general have had to use ultra-high vacuums or high vacuum chambers to achieve this. So, the quandary is firstly that we have a coating that does not stick well to a surface and provides a brief respite from the damage of water, and secondly using a vacuum chamber which is very restrictive cost-wise while also limiting the size of objects that can be protected.
C-Voltaics debuted this technology at COMS 2013 the Netherlands.
Authors:
Steven Walsh is a distinguished professor at the University of New Mexico where he holds the Regents Professor at UNM’s Anderson School of Management. He is also the Institute Professor for Entrepreneurial Renewal at the University of Twente. He has many business service awards including the Lifetime Achievement award for commercialization of Micro and Nano technology firms from MANCEF. He has also been named as a Tech All Star from the State of New Mexico Economic Development Department and has been recognised by Albuquerque the magazine as a leader in service to the economic community. Finally, he is serial entrepreneur who has helped generate multiple tens of millions of dollars for the firms he was in the founding team with.
Robert Tierney is Ph.D. ABD from the University of Twente Nikos in the field of technology innovation. He was a student hire at Sandia National Laboratory. He has a biology degree and a management of technology and Innovation masters from the University of New Mexico. He has had five ISI ranked journal publications in the last three years.
Vic Chavez recently retired as the Technology Transfer Coordinator for the USDA/ARS North Atlantic Area (NAA) which includes the Eastern Regional Research Center in Pennsylvania, the research facilities in West Virginia, New York, Maine, Massachusetts, Delaware and others in the Northeastern US and is responsible for Facilitating technology transfer activities, negotiating technology transfer agreements, serving as liaison with ARS scientists and managers, university partners, and the private sector. Mr. Chavez is responsible for Technology Transfer interactions with the Bureau of Reclamation under an Interagency Agreement. He is a Member at Large on the Federal Laboratory Consortium Executive Board and is the Liaison for the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds.
Dr. Kang-Shyang Liao received his Ph.D. in 2008 from the Department of Chemistry at Texas A&M University. He is currently a Research Scientist at Institute for NanoEnergy, University of Houston. His research work has been recognized by more than 27 publications accepted by or submitted to major referred journals. He is also the co-inventor of three pending patents with Prof. Curran. His work involves performing research on the controlled self-assembly of nanomaterials for organic photovoltaics and energy applications. This work has been expanded from basic material synthesis to building and coordinating device fabrication in the areas of photovoltaic cells and also new materials for hydrophobic protective coatings.
Dr. Seamus Curran is the Director of the institute for NanoEnergy (INE), Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Houston and CEO/Chairman of C-Voltaics, a nanotechnology and energy company. He is also a member of the Global Irish Network, a diaspora group set up by the Irish Government while he was named a a Tech All Star from the State of New Mexico Economic Development Department. He graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1995 with a PhD in Physics, served as a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute, CNRS and Rensselaer, has published over 100 papers and has been cited over 2,500 with a h index of 21.