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Press
Release Fountain Valley, March 29, 2002: The Council of Chemical
Research presented their 2001 Collaboration Success Award to Hybrid Plastics,
Inc., the Air Force Research Laboratory - Edwards Air Force Base and the
University of California - Irvine at their annual meeting in Cincinnati
on Sunday, March 24, 2002. The long-standing collaboration which launched
the development of Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane (POSS™)
Nanotechnology dates back to 1998. These hybrid nanochemicals had been
hailed by R&D magazine as one of the 100 most technologically significant
new products for the year 2000. POSS™ Nanotechnology is a revolutionary new platform
technology based on structurally well-defined, nanometer-scale, silicon-derived
materials which dramatically improve the thermal and mechanical properties
of traditional polymers while offering easy incorporation using existing
manufacturing protocols. They release no VOCs and thereby produce no odor
or air pollution. POSS™ materials can be used both as direct replacements
for hydrocarbon based materials or as low-density performance additives
to traditional plastics. They are biocompatible, recyclable, non-flammable
, and competitively priced with traditional polymer feedstocks. POSS™
Nanostructured™ materials can be incorporated into virtually any
existing polymer system through blending, grafting or co-polymerization.
The research collaboration was originally established under
the Advanced Technology Program of NIST to reduce the cost and accelerate
development of the nanotechnology. Initially focused on high temperature
plastic materials for use in rocket propulsion systems, it rapidly expanded
to address a multitude of far-reaching applications. Early work with POSS™
established the revolutionary nature of the technology for improving the
properties and performance of a wide variety of thermoplastic and thermoset
systems (e.g., acrylics, styrenics, urethanes, epoxies, rubbers, siloxanes)
and set the stage for rapid development of Nanostructured™ materials.
POSS™ nanostructures have also demonstrated promise in a wide range
of other applications, ranging from drug delivery to electronics to sporting
equipment. The total corporate and government investment in this field
since 1991 is over $15M. This investment has allowed this research collaboration
team to leverage technical expertise and R&D costs in order to achieve
advances in POSS™ technology that would not have been possible for
any one of the individual organizations to accomplish independently. For More Information Contact: Carl Hagstrom, Chief Operating Officer chagstrom@hybridplastics.com |