Product First Marketed or Available for Order Inventor or Principal Developer

AFFIRMATION: I affirm that all information submitted as a part of, or supplemental to, this entry is a fair and accurate representation of this product. This simple, economical nanotechnology coating process enables the development of nanoparticle thin films with architectures and properties unattainable by any other processing method. Product price will vary as this new technology is applicable to a wide range of products, from small and irregular shaped parts to large runs of hundreds of square feet of material. Depending on the application-specific performance requirements, the material costs will range from pennies per square foot for simple dielectric films to $10 per square foot for complex high-performance films. Product Price Patents or Patents Pending " The broad reach of this rapid self-assembly process, delivering performance across multiple markets, at radically lower cost in an environmentally friendly manner, warrants serious consideration as a top innovation in this decade. " — Walt Werner, a principal engineer for Lockheed Martin (Maritime Systems and Sensors) Many of today's technologies and products, including semiconductor devices, consumer electronics, and high-performance optical coatings depend on the ability to produce high-quality thin films. We developed a wet-solution-based process employing self-assembly as a new method to produce optical and electrical thin films. This new process not only meets the demanding requirements of these technologies but also expands the functionality of these films to deliver performance on multiple metrics concurrently. Elegant, simple, and with more options for development and manufacturing than conventional coating processes such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or sputtering , our technology involves chemical synthesis of mono-disperse nanoparticles with controlled chemical composition, particle size, shape, and their further assembly into engineered nanoparticle composite films. Our nanoparticle surface chemistry enables dispersal in readily available commercial solvents, allowing easy and rapid production of films through spin, dip, or spray coating under ambient conditions. During coating, evaporation of solvents induces self-assembly of the nanoparticles to form films of dense, close-packed nanoparticles. In a further refinement, our process is also capable of producing nanocomposite films that are impossible to manufacture through any conventional means. With the addition of secondary organic (e.g., polymers) or inorganic (e.g., silica) components, the nanoparticles self-assemble into ordered arrays embedded in a matrix of the secondary component. The result is an ordered, high-density nanocomposite where the constituent materials are controllably incorporated on the nanometer scale. The functionality of the film can be tailored to a specific …