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Ford Gift Opens Door to Nanotech Research
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Two Michigan Technological University researchers are undertaking a brand-new endeavor that could play a role in fields as diverse as chemical warfare and computer touch screens, thanks to an unusual gift from the Ford Motor Company.
Ford has donated five patents that could serve as a springboard to the creation of some of the finest filters seen outside of nature.
The patents relate to conductive polymers, which the scientists hope to use as glue for building membranes so fine they could separate out oxygen (or more sinister gases) from the ambient air. The work involves combining 21st-century polymers and one of the most ancient organisms on earth, the diatom.
Too tiny to see with the naked eye, diatoms are a group of single-celled creatures, each with a very delicate skeleton. Viewed under an electron microscope, some species have disc-shaped skeletons patterned over with minute holes, or pores. Each pore measures between 20 and 100 nanometers across. For comparison's sake, a human hair is about 100,000 nanometers wide.
Associate Professor Tony Rogers, of the Department of Chemical Engineering, and Visiting Associate Professor Burhanettin Altan, of the mechanical engineering department, speculate that diatoms could be used to make a new generation of semi-permeable membranes. But sticking them together in sheets has been an obstacle.
Thanks to Ford's patent donation, MTU researchers believe they can use an electrically conductive polymer as a matrix for the diatoms, cementing them together. Then, they hope to coat the diatoms with a metal film and burn off the polymer.
What should remain would be the finest screen ever built outside of nature.
"We could make the pores selective for oxygen to separate it from the air," Rogers said. "A big advantage would be its high selectivity and high permeability." Usually, thin membranes allow more material to pass through, but are less selective. "Our membrane wouldn't have that problem."
Such filters could also be a defense against chemical attacks, if they could be configured to separate toxic gases from the air.
The membrane might have a number of other applications as well, and the conductive polymers hold promise in a variety of technologies, including touch screens, sensors, electronic devices, telecommunications equipment and electrical shielding.
Damian Porcari, director of technology commercialization for Ford Global Technologies Inc., said he's pleased to be passing on the patents. FGTI is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company.
"We wanted to advance the technology, and Michigan Tech is ideally suited to continue this work," Porcari said.
"We're very grateful to Ford for their gift," Rogers said. "Without their generous support, this research would be much more difficult." The company also provided funding to administer the five patents.
Ford offered the patents to Michigan Tech as a result of the University's research in conductive polymers, particularly within the Carbon Technology Center.
For more information, contact Rogers at tnrogers@mtu.edu, 906-487-2210; or Jim Baker, Michigan Tech's director of technology partnerships, 906-487-2228, jbaker@mtu.edu.
Michigan Tech (www.mtu.edu) is ranked among the top 50 public universities in the country by U.S. News and World Report. The university has one of the largest engineering programs in the country and offers quality programs in the sciences, business, communications, forestry and environmental science.
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