Development of new nanoscale architectures combining inorganic and organic materials enables HST to create products with novel properties for a wide range of applications. To realize the commercial potential of these materials, we are working with interdisciplinary teams to achieve required levels of performance and economics for the demands of specific applications and connecting with established players in each field to speed their adoption.
Performance – Across different classes of materials, shrinking dimensions down to the nanoscale (~1/1000th the diameter of a human hair) can lead to significant changes and enhancements of their properties with respect to bulk properties. For C•spec™ particles, control over the local environment within particles as well as between particles is key to achieving the enhanced performance.
To fully develop the platform, HST is working with the Wiesner Group at Cornell and other collaborators on applications that test the limits of our technology. For example, together with Cornell and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer we are developing C•spec™ contrast agents for injection into the bloodstream to help surgeons ensure complete removal of cancerous tissues. These probes have exacting requirements: small size (to clear the body), conjugation chemistry (to reach target tissues) and particle size distribution (for regulatory approval).
Economics – In the cancer probe application above, the cost of inorganic-organic hybrids is largely determined by the cost of the specific fluorescent dye. Depending on the dye, it can cost, on a weight basis, approximately as much as a cut diamond at retail prices. The critical value of this application and the small quantities of materials needed justify the incorporation of highly refined, purified dyes.
In other applications the costs of the materials must be lowered to be practical, so we employ a number of strategies to achieve target economics:
• Incorporate materials that are appropriately priced for the application – While the dyes for in vivo applications and molecular biology are very expensive, less pure dyes can be used for most high volume applications. The same dye that is used in molecular biology can be used in flood water tracing, if dye suppliers can avoid multiple purification steps. The ability to use lower purity materials can lead to orders of magnitude cost reductions. Generally, we start with small quantities of higher quality materials to achieve proof of concept and then evaluate more affordable substitutes in a systematic fashion to achieve maximum performance/cost attributes.
• Minimize the quantities of materials needed - In many applications there is a need to connect nanoscale architectures to macroscopic substrates so that new functionalities are provided at minimum cost. We focus on thin film approaches, because a small amount of material can have great impact on the final properties of a coated substrate.
• Explore various scale-up approaches to reduce costs of synthesis – To reduce the costs of exploring different alternatives, we minimize batch sizes while maximizing the number of process variables that are investigated to improve cost performance.
