Broomfield / Colorado / United States
ALD NanoSolutions, IncIncorporated in 2001, this Colorado-based company has developed state of the art ALD techniques that have resulted in over 50 industrial partnerships. The company also has exclusive licensing rights for the intellectual property on ALD techniques developed at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The company has patented its Particle ALDTM and Polymer ALDTM technology ( the patents have issued in the U.S., Europe, and Japan ).There is increasing interest in using nanoparticles and nanomaterials to provide improved, more customized solutions to industry. The coating of these substrates provides improved functionalities, such as wear resistance, corrosion resistance, scratch resistance, hardness, hydrophobicity, hydrophilicity, catalytic activity, etc.. However, successful large-scale production of conformal thin coatings or films on substrates has been a significant commercial challenge. Conventional techniques such as chemical vapor deposition have been commercially employed to produce nanocoatings but suffer from drawbacks such as agglomeration of nanoparticles on the substrate ( which often deactivates the functionality of the coated material ), non-uniform coatings, line of sight dependency and wastage of valuable precursors.In this context, ALD NanoSolutions inventions are notable. The Company has been the first to develop the novel Particle ALDTM technique that produces conformal, uniform, pinhole free, high purity, inorganic nanocoatings on the surface of dry individual nanoparticles. To achieve this, the research team at ALD NanoSolutions efficiently synchronized the unique fluidization characteristic of nanoparticles known as dynamic aggregation and the self-limiting sequential surface reaction provided by the ALD technique. The Particle ALDTM process is carried out in a fluidized bed reactor making it easily scalable. The thickness of the coating produced via this technique is independent of the time, flux or location in the fluidized bed reactor. In addition, the coating is chemically bonded to the particulate substrate.
