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NANOMATERIALS | OUR SPECIALTY
| NANOTECHNOLOGY
NANOMATERIALS COMPANY - A Nanotechnology
Company
Nanomaterials Company, the Philadelphia
metropolitan area’s first nanotechnology company, has been a contract
manufacturing and process research and development company servicing
thedefense and aerospace for over six years. Nanomaterials is located in
Malvern, a suburb of Philadelphia,
and derives many ancillary services from the rich resources located there.
Organized in 1995 and incorporated in 1999using private investments and a
small investment from Ben Franklin Technology Partners, we are dedicated to
the development of the nanoparticle, nanomaterials processing and
applications, and associated enabling technologies. Nanomaterials derived its
process technology from key technical achievements at Los Alamos National
Laboratory and has continuously expanded its technology base since then Our
business is devoted to the exploitation of materials properties exhibited
when its architecture is on the nanometer scale and to the design and
manufacture of proprietary enabling processing equipment.
 
We
are presently developing relationships with industry to facilitate our
emerging commercial aspirations which include:
A) Supply major chemical manufacturers and distributors with complex
nanopowders and nanostructured materials for resale under their label
B) To supply process tools to manufacturers interested in producing
specific nanopowder products
C) Research and product development services to the industry and
government, and
D) Licensing proprietary processing technology to organizations
interested in supplying the exploding nanotechnology market with nanopowders.
Our mission is to enhance the performance of your products and
the processes to produce them.
The Nanomaterials Company occupies a 5000 square foot facility in
an industrial park convenient to major highways and mass transportation. Our expertise is focused on the production
of free, unagglomerated, monodisperse, nanopowders having complex composition,
and clean (naked) surfaces. We define nanoparticles as free particles having
an average diameter well below 100 nm and typically in the 1 – 30 nm
range with narrow particle size distribution.
Our legacy has been the production of difficult materials with
exacting specifications that are not otherwise commercially available.
Central to the Nanomaterials technology base is a proprietary
pilot plant particle production tool capable of the continuous production
oxide and non-oxide nanopowders with a wide range in composition. The design
capacity of the tool is 1 kg per hour.
This tool has been used to produce, for example, optical grade
aluminum nitride nanopowders with oxygen concentration in the ppm range,
yttria stabilized zirconia, barium titanate and many other complex nanopowders.
Also at our facility is a full complement of other ancillary materials
processing equipment to affect precursor production, and support process
development such as, high temperature furnaces, balances, vacuum leak
detector and other high vacuum equipment, mass analyzer, drier, dispersion
effectors, cryogenic process equipment, microscopes, vacuum Schlink
line, and vacuum and conventional glove boxes, powder x-ray diffractometer,
thermal analyzers, high current, high voltage, microwave furnace, state of
the art desk top computing network, electronic record maintenance, large
array of electronic test instruments and more. We also have a machine modest shop which
supports maintenance and prototype development. We own or have access to a variety of
computer programs which gives the company the capability to perform a variety
of materials and process calculations, and have developed a set of proprietary
codes for our in house manufacturing and design needs. These include sophisticated codes for heat
transfer, chemical kinetics and chemical thermodynamics, computational fluid
dynamics, aqueous chemistry equilibrium/distribution, mechanical and
electrical CAD, PLC, and other design and computational resources.
Within the local vicinity of the Nanomaterials Co., are
university user facilities that include modern analytical and materials
characterization instruments. These
instruments include field-emission scanning electron microscope JEOL 6300-FV,
analytical scanning electron microscope JEOL 6400, high resolution
transmission electron microscope JEOL 4000EX, transmission electron
microscope Phillips 400T, and JEOL 2010F 200 kV Field-emission Gun TEM/STEM,
and a host of materials testing instruments including those for static and
dynamic mechanical testing, IR spectroscopic instruments including a Digilab
FTS-40 FT-IR, Nicolet 20SX variable
temperature (-200 - 100 C) FT-IR, Mattson Cygnus 100 FT-IR with mid, near and
far IR optics, several general use Mattson 4000 series mid IR spectrometers,
and Siemens D500 powder x-ray diffractometer.
A spark plasma sintering (PAS) machine with current capabilities up to
4000 A, flexible pulse current application (1-99 s on/off time), pressure up
to 100 MPa, automatic control of the sintering cycle, vacuum or controlled
atmosphere, a MTS servohydraulic testing machine with computer based control
system, radiant furnace (1100 °C) and resistance furnace (1100 °C); high
temperature extensometer (600 °C), constant stress controlled atmosphere
creep machine with data acquisition, constant stress, vacuum creep testing
system with high resolution data acquisition system, attritor mill with 1
liter capacity, dimplers and dual ion beam milling equipment with cold stage and
accessories, electrothinning equipment, quantitative image analysis system,
transmission electron microscope, scanning electron microscope, electron
microscope with EDAX analysis system, scanning electron microprobe analyzer,
automated x-ray diffractometer with residual stress, high temperature and
computer search, EDM machining facility, electromechanical testing machines,
metallograph with micro hardness tester, high vacuum annealing furnace,
amongst other instruments are also available for our use. We regularly employ the services of local
analytical laboratories for quality control which have a ICP MS instrument
having sensitivities of a few ppb and few ppt depending on the element
investigated.
Our specialty
We specialize in the production of nanomaterials having complex
composition and exacting particle size and particle size distribution and
tailored surface characteristics.
Additionally we also provide customers with materials processing
solutions and equipment to meet the needs of the emerging nanomaterials and
ultra high purity market.
Since the beginning of our commercial development enterprise we
continue to explore new ways to produce better materials and better processes
to achieve higher manufacturing capabilities.
Nanomaterials customers include industries seeking to improve
their products or increase margins by lowering manufacture costs and the US
government seeking new ideas for the development of tools which will provide
them with strategic advantages.
The Nanomaterials Company specializes in the development of new
materials and new processing techniques for their manufacture. The Nanomaterials company employs a diverse
array of materials synthesis techniques to develop and manufacture advanced
materials with exacting specifications and extreme performance.
NANOTECHNOLOGY
Where does Nanomaterials fit into the
“Nanotechnology” picture. Aldrich Chemical Company
has kindly provided us with a graphic from their 2004 catalog featuring
products for materials science which represents one of several possible
nanotechnology organization chart. We
believe their efforts represent a fair and balanced picture of the field today We have superimposed our logo onto the
regions where Nanomaterials is pursuing commercial endeavors.
Courtesy  (Copyright Aldrich 2004)
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