Nanotech’s More Prosaic Pursuits: Processing, Packaging & Paint
Two of my favorite nanotech companies—Konarka and Evident—recently announced an alliance to develop novel nanomaterials. It is the type of announcement that can easily be overlooked in the daily avalanche of press releases streaming forth from nanotech companies. It is my opinion, however, that this one has some legs and should be heeded by company executives in the plastics and food packaging industries.
Konarka is a leading developer of flexible polymer photovoltaic products and Evident is a leading producer of quantum dots. By employing Evident’s new quantum dots, which can reportedly harvest photons outside the visible light spectrum more efficiently, Konarka believes it will be able to develop even more efficient plastic solar cells. And if Konarka can develop plastic packaging that can harvest the ambient light from, say, grocery store lighting, it could enable packaging to power itself on the shelf. This, in turn, could lead to packaging that keeps products fresher a much longer time.
Granted, it might not be the sexiest use of nanotechnology, but it is the kind that could significantly improve a food company’s profits—especially if the technology is coupled with “intelligent” packaging (i.e. packaging that monitors or displays the freshness of food).
I recently came across a somewhat similar press release about a company called, Ecology Coatings, which has developed a “liquid solid” paint that can be applied to protective coatings on everything from automobiles to electronic components. The beauty of the company’s “liquid solids” is that they dry almost immediately and contain no solvents. Again, this might not sound like a thing deal, but it is. First, the coating industry is estimated to be a $20 billion a year industry and because Ecology Coating’s “liquid solids” can paint the same area with only 20 to 30 percent of the amount of regular paint, it suggests that it could lead to very large cost savings. More significantly, because the product contains no solvents, it gives off no hazardous fumes and thus exempts users of the product from some EPA regulations.
If these benefits aren’t enough to make a believer out of you, perhaps the fact that DuPont is licensing the technology from Ecology Coatings will.
The bottom-line is that while these nanotech developments may appear to be prosaic, they will also be quite profitable … and are precisely the type of developments that even executives and managers who have only a short-term focus should be heeding.
Jack Uldrich
Related Links:
Nanotech has arrived
Nanotech and the future of the energy industry
Nanotechnology & the Dow Index of 2025
Konarka is a leading developer of flexible polymer photovoltaic products and Evident is a leading producer of quantum dots. By employing Evident’s new quantum dots, which can reportedly harvest photons outside the visible light spectrum more efficiently, Konarka believes it will be able to develop even more efficient plastic solar cells. And if Konarka can develop plastic packaging that can harvest the ambient light from, say, grocery store lighting, it could enable packaging to power itself on the shelf. This, in turn, could lead to packaging that keeps products fresher a much longer time.
Granted, it might not be the sexiest use of nanotechnology, but it is the kind that could significantly improve a food company’s profits—especially if the technology is coupled with “intelligent” packaging (i.e. packaging that monitors or displays the freshness of food).
I recently came across a somewhat similar press release about a company called, Ecology Coatings, which has developed a “liquid solid” paint that can be applied to protective coatings on everything from automobiles to electronic components. The beauty of the company’s “liquid solids” is that they dry almost immediately and contain no solvents. Again, this might not sound like a thing deal, but it is. First, the coating industry is estimated to be a $20 billion a year industry and because Ecology Coating’s “liquid solids” can paint the same area with only 20 to 30 percent of the amount of regular paint, it suggests that it could lead to very large cost savings. More significantly, because the product contains no solvents, it gives off no hazardous fumes and thus exempts users of the product from some EPA regulations.
If these benefits aren’t enough to make a believer out of you, perhaps the fact that DuPont is licensing the technology from Ecology Coatings will.
The bottom-line is that while these nanotech developments may appear to be prosaic, they will also be quite profitable … and are precisely the type of developments that even executives and managers who have only a short-term focus should be heeding.
Jack Uldrich
Related Links:
Nanotech has arrived
Nanotech and the future of the energy industry
Nanotechnology & the Dow Index of 2025
posted by Jack at 9:47 AM
