2014 Innovation Awards: General Nano LLC Named Finalist

A University of Cincinnati College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS) spin-off company,

General Nano

, has been named a finalist of the

2014 Business Courier Innovation Awards

. The young company, which manufactures nanoscale materials for aerospace and defense applications, licenses inventions from UC. General Nano previously won the

Engineering Innovation Award

at the 2013 Business Courier Innovation Awards.

Mark Schulz

, CEAS

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

professor,

Vesselin Shanov

, CEAS

Department of Biomedical, Chemical, and Environmental Engineering

associate professor, and

Joe Sprengard

, president and CEO of General Nano, founded the company in 2009. Based in Norwood, the firm specializes in developing carbon nanotube materials for aerospace and defense applications. Their customers include the

Department of Defense

,

NASA

, and numerous aerospace and defense original equipment manufacturers and Prime Contractors.

Carbon nanotubes are carbon atoms arranged in hexagonal patterns forming a tube. They are one hundred thousandth of the width of a human hair, possess twice the strength of any other engineering material on Earth, serve as excellent thermal and electrical conductors, and they have the potential to replace the use of copper and aluminum. In 2007, a UC research team led by Shanov was credited with creating the longest carbon nanotube forests ever, measuring 18 millimeters.

General Nano’s exotic materials have been attracting the attention of numerous investors, including the United States military. Recently, the Office of Naval Research awarded the company $1.3 million to conduct work on structural composites and energy storage devices over a span of two years.

The only nanotube materials that are currently commercially available are usually short in length and come in powder form to be used in coating and fillers. General Nano synthesizes the materials using a special catalyst particle—their “secret sauce,” if you will—that lasts significantly longer during the high temperature and pressure production process. This particle promotes the nanotubes to grow longer.

According to Sprengard, “General Nano’s sheet and tape products could replace copper and aluminum in some military systems. One reason is that in aerospace, everything is about weight and nanotubes weigh much less than either copper or aluminum.”

Among the various applications of these carbon nanotube materials is the ability to expend heat from electronics boxes in satellites or missiles and also, to apply the materials’ light-absorption properties to coatings for space instruments.

In addition to the military and aerospace applications, Sprengard said the technology has sparked interest in other fields where the ability to remove weight without sacrificing other properties is attractive.

“We’re already seeing interest in the automotive and energy sectors,” he said, citing wind energy in particular. “A lot of the work we’re doing is transferable to wind technology. They need turbine blades that are longer, stronger and more conductive so they don’t ice up.”

To date, General Nano has accumulated $5.8 million from Ohio, the Department of Defense and private investors. The

Ohio Third Frontier

technology funding initiative donated $2 million of that total to make advanced materials a focus for the firm.

General Nano recently sponsored and presented at the UC-hosted

2014 Nanotechnology Materials and Devices (NMD) Workshop

. The sixth NMD workshop was sponsored by the

UC Office of Research

; the

UC Nanoworld Laboratory

; the

UC College of Engineering and Applied Science

; the

University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI)

; and the

Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)

along with industrial partners

AIXTRON

;

International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC)

;

Metis Design

;

Nanocomp Technologies

;

Netzsch

;

Oxford Lasers

; and

Surfx

.

About 130 participants from seven countries—Australia, Canada, China, Italy, Japan, U.K. and the U.S.—were in attendance to represent numerous government institutions, universities and industries. The workshop benchmarked the current state of the art and developed plans for future breakthroughs in engineering materials and devices based on nanotechnology.

The Innovation Awards celebrate innovative people and companies “that show how new ideas can be developed into fuel for the Tri-State’s economic engine.” The program is presented by the

Business Courier

and community partner

CincyTech

. Sponsors of the award include:

UC College of Engineering and Applied Science

;

Frost Brown Todd LLC

; and

SS&G

.

Winners will be announced at an event on April 10, 2014 and will be featured in the April 11th Business Courier.

For more information about General Nano LLC, please visit:

http://www.generalnanollc.com/

For more information about the UC Nanoworld Laboratory, please visit:

http://www.min.uc.edu/nanoworldsmart/

For more information about the UC College of Engineering and Applied Science, please visit:

http://ceas.uc.edu/