The Hatch Match and Dispatch of Nanomaterials
Professor Ed Lester, Promethean Particles – "Formulating Solutions with Nanomaterials"
Promethean Particles uses a unique reactor technology that allows unprecedented flexibility and product control in inorganic nanoparticle manufacture. Promethean uses its patented continuous hydrothermal reactor technology to produce high-quality bespoke inorganic nanomaterials as dispersions and services a wide variety of industrial customers at a commercial scale.
Promethean’s product control not only covers the wide range of product compositions open to this technique, but also includes control of particle size, size distribution, morphology and product formulation, while maintaining excellent product quality.
Whilst Promethean specialises in the manufacture of metal and metal oxide nanoparticles - in particular ceramics such as TiO2, CeO2 and hydroxyapatite - the hydrothermal flow system allows precise control of doping levels for mixed metal systems or solid solutions. All products are supplied as dispersions, not only to avoid the inherent risks of dry powder handling, but also to limit agglomeration and aggregation problems that can often be the downfall of a successful nano-enabled process or material. In particular, Promethean has become interested in introducing their nanomaterials into polymer matrices to develop high performance polymer composite materials delivering increased functionality. Producing a formulated nanomaterial in a liquid can completely negate standard downstream processing stages such as mixing, redispersion, and surface activation/modification. A single system that could combines the hatch, match and dispatch of a nanomaterial would represent a paradigm shift in process technology.
Finally, Promethean understands that only by delivering bespoke high-quality nanomaterials on the commercial scale can true success be achieved. To this end the laboratory-scale reactor system (grams/hour capability) has been successfully scaled up to pilot scale (multi-kgs/day) in order to service the extensive range of markets Promethean can supply.
YouTube Video - "Making Nanoparticles with Supercritical Water"