Small world, big payoffs
Firms pursue new products made from nanotechnology
The next big thing is small. Very small. It’s called nanotechnology and it has the potential to revolutionize almost every product made anywhere.
Nanotechnology involves the manipulation of materials smaller than 100 nanometers — one nanometer is one billionth of a meter — or roughly the size of a virus. The result: Substantially improved products with entirely new properties. At that size, scientists can manipulate molecules and materials that under normal circumstances they couldn’t exhibit.A number of local companies have joined the race to explore the nanoworld. In Northboro, Aspen Aerogels Inc. pairs silicon dioxide aerogels with blankets to create a material that is ultra-resistant to heat and electrical conductivity.
Scientists have long known about the unusual properties of aerogels properties since their discovery in 1931. Chiefly, the material is ultra light and an ultra-strong heat insulator. They work by trapping amounts of air so small that they do not move between aerogels’ tiny silica pores.
However, aerogels are brittle enough to break from a light touch of the hand, which up until now has limited their use. But by combining them with blanket, Aspen Aerogels makes aerogel materials that are flexible enough to be used commercially but retain the properties of an aerogel, says Marc Lebel, vice president of marketing.
The five-year-old, venture funded company has found a range of markets for the product. It is especially useful in undersea oil pipelines where it is a lightweight, high-quality insualtor for the pipes carrying crude oil.
The company has also found ways to use the product to insulate snowboarding jackets, boot insoles, refrigerators and cars, to name a few.
The possibilities for such a nano-material are seemingly endless, Lebel says.
Carbon nanotubes in Ashland
Nanotechnology also has big implications for electrical components.
Robert J. Crowley, a former product development head at Boston Scientific Corp. in Natick, is using nanotechnology in two startups he started from his lab space in Ashland.
One startup, Ambit Corp., secured patents for carbon nanotubes only several molecules thick that can grow like whiskers on a silicon bed. The highly-conductive material could be used to build faster fiber optic switches or improved semiconductors and computer memory, Crowley says.
In that same lab space Crowley
co-founded Soundwave Research Laboratories Inc. with Hugh A. Tripp in 2004. The two make high-end studio microphones based on nanoscale carbon sheets that vibrate inside of a magnet to transmit sound. The highly sensitive mics can be "tuned" to better amplify a person’s voice. They sell from $800 to $1,600 and Crowley uses the profits to develop other nanotechnologies.
Crowley says he hopes to use that same technology to create a more powerful ultrasound machine.
State joins the fray
The possibility of nanotechnology-enabled businesses is so attractive that different state groups have joined the fray to try and attract more nano-business to MA.
The University of Massachusetts in Amherst plans to build a nanotech design and manufacturing center called the Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing.
The National Science Foundation awarded the school $16 million to build the center, one of only four similar facilities nationwide. Several Bay State schools — including MIT, Harvard and Northeastern Universities — also pursue advanced research in nanotechnology.
Thomas E Hubbard of the John Adams Innovation Institute says the center will be one of many nanotechnology initiatives helping to build a "critical mass" of nano R&D in the Bay State. The economic development arm of the Westboro-based Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, the institute gave $2 million to the project.
Hubbard sees the possibility of collaboration with UMass researchers, which include 50 faculty members from eight different departments working on nanotechnology. Those researchers could aid companies looking to revamp their nanotech production process or research new ways to use nanotechnology. The school is already doing similar research projects with Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories, IBM Corp. and TIZX in Cambridge.
Another benefit would be the creation of spin-off companies, Hubbard says. Nano-research at several universities has already led up-and-coming nano-companies such as Konarka in Lowell, a UMass-Lowell spin-off making ultra-flexible solar cells, and Nantero in Woburn, a Harvard University spin-off developing nanotechnology-enabled computer memory.
The center would also train a competent pool of workers familiar with nanotechnology manufacturing and design, Hubbard says. That pool of workers, arguably one of the state’s strongest assets, would be instrumental in convincing companies to resettle or expand their presence here.
Well-trained workforce a boon
Finding knowledgeable people to work in their companies will be the biggest benefit down the line, say both Crowley of Ambit and Lebel of Aspen.
Since both companies design and manufacture in MA, workers trained at all levels of nanotech development would brighten the future of the industry here, they say.
And if more companies are created, the possibility of cross-licensing nano-patents might help.
"It’s nice that the government is investing all that money and I support that initiative," Crowley says. "But I am not sure what it will do for us. Maybe down the line, it will send out people who know how to work with these technologies, but as for right now it won’t affect us one way or the other."
Kenneth J. St. Onge can be reached at kstonge@wbjournal.com
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments