Credit: The Corning Leader.

When you walk up to an ATM or an airport kiosk, ever wonder where the prior user’s hands might have been or what they left behind on the touchscreens?

Corning has. Last week, Corning held its annual shareholders meeting, and during the meeting Corning chair and CEO Wendell Weeks, with a little fanfare, announced that the company is developing a glass that kills drug-resistant bacteria and viruses. According to a a video shot by the local newspaper, The Leader, Weeks said that the product is still in development, but can kill 99% of viruses and bacteria it contacts, including methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Weeks seems to joke a little bit regarding the context for this and about how, with Gorilla Glass now in 600 million devices (the fastest growing product in the company’s history), several people have asked about all the germs that are on Gorilla Glass screens .

I am not sure how big of a problem bacteria and viruses are on smartphones, but, okay, I am not sure there is much benefit in arguing the point. I do get, however, that having this type of glass surface available in medical settings, where seriously nasty germs abound, could be very valuable.

One thing, however, I am not so clear on is how unique or new the Corning product is, or what the problems are with bringing it to market. Back in 2007, AGC Glass announced something similar, claiming, “A world première, AntiBacterial Glass kills 99.9% of bacteria  and stops the spread of fungi, which, with the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, represents a milestone in the fight against hospital-caught infections.”

This YouTube video (in French with English subtitles) from 2010 suggests the AGC product is based on surface technologies involving titanium dioxide and silver

The video does make some references silver, but If it is true that the antimicrobial action is mainly due to the titania content of the glass, then I suspect it is different from the Corning product.

My suspicions are based on patent about “chemically strengthened glass having antimicrobial properties and to a method of making such glass,” just filed in February by a Corning group that included Nicholas F. Borrelli, David L. Morse, Wageesha Senaratne, Florence Verrier and Ying Wei. Morse, perhaps the most well known of the group, was just named CTO of Corning.

Skimming through the quintet’s patent, it is interesting that they note, “The methods described herein can be used to make antimicrobial glass samples of any thickness. In one embodiment, for example, for use in electronic devices as a touch screen or a touch screen cover glass, for example without limitation, cell phones, computer (including laptops and slates) and ATMs, the glass typically has a thickness in the range of 0.2 mm to 3 mm.”

They go on to report on the antibacterial properties ascribed to silver, but explain that the antibacterial force comes from Ag⁺¹ ions found on the surface of an object, not silver, itself.

Regarding the process they advocate, in brief, they admit that some silver could be introduced as part of a one-step process to chemically strengthen glass, but a one-step process does not leave enough Ag⁺¹ ion to provide sufficient “kill” action, and, “further when the one-step method is used, significant color is produced as a consequence. This color makes the glass unsuitable for use in electronic devices by altering the display, for example, by making it less clear or altering the colors.”

Instead, they go on to describe how they have devised a better two-step process “that allows one to obtain a significantly higher concentration of Ag⁺¹ ions on the surface of the glass which results in a commensurate decrease in the ‘kill’ time … while not producing any undesirable yellow color and therefore achieving the desirable transmittance characteristics.”

So, it is fair to wonder: if one of the key properties of this glass depends on Ag⁺¹ ions on the surface of a glass product, what happens to the surface when one cleans it? Well, they have an answer for that, too. The patent document claims the glass can be cleaned easily with no loss of anti-microbial effectiveness, ” A ‘low surface energy’ coating is applied to the surface of the silver-containing, chemically strengthened antimicrobial glass to impart easy-to-clean properties to the glass surface. The low surface energy coating is a hydrophobic coating that facilitates the ease of cleanability of the surface.”

Thus, I suspect that Week’s discussion of anti-microbial glass is a direct reference to the work of Morse et al.

For anyone interest in Week’s entire presentation (about an hour), the company offers a audio MP3 and a WMA version of his presentation. He starts getting in to the specific vision built of the company built on GG, GG2 around the 33 minute mark, and the anti-microbial glass around 38 minute minute mark.

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Stanford University researchers have discovered a new way to ‘decorate’ nanowires with coatings of metal oxide and noble metal nanoparticles that greatly improve surface area. Credit: Stanford Nanocharacterization Lab.

Check ‘em out:

High-strength silk protein scaffolds for bone repair

(PNAS) Biomaterials for bone tissue regeneration represent a major focus of orthopedic research. However, only a handful of polymeric biomaterials are utilized today because of their failure to address critical issues like compressive strength for load-bearing bone grafts. In this study development of a high compressive strength (~13 MPa hydrated state) polymeric bone composite materials is reported, based on silk protein-protein interfacial bonding. Micron-sized silk fibers (10-600 µm) obtained utilizing alkali hydrolysis were used as reinforcement in a compact fiber composite with tunable compressive strength, surface roughness, and porosity based on the fiber length included. A combination of surface roughness, porosity, and scaffold stiffness favored human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell differentiation toward bone-like tissue in vitro based on biochemical and gene expression for bone markers. Further, minimal in vivo immunomodulatory responses suggested compatibility of the fabricated silk-fiber-reinforced composite matrices for bone engineering applications.

Prominent electrochromism through vacancy-order melting in a complex oxide

(Nature Communications) Electrochromes are materials that have the ability to reversibly change from one colour state to another with the application of an electric field. Electrochromic colouration efficiency is typically large in organic materials that are not very stable chemically. Here we show that inorganic Bi_0.9Ca_0.1FeO_3-0.05 thin films exhibit a prominent electrochromic effect arising from an intrinsic mechanism due to the melting of oxygen-vacancy ordering and the associated redistribution of carriers. We use a combination of optical characterization techniques in conjunction with high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and first-principles theory. The absorption change and colouration efficiency at the band edge (blue-cyan region) are 4.8×106 m^-1 and 190 cm² C^-1, respectively, which are the highest reported values for inorganic electrochromes, even exceeding values of some organic materials.

Light touch keeps a grip on delicate nanoparticles

(NIST Tech Beat) Using a refined technique for trapping and manipulating nanoparticles, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have extended the trapped particles’ useful life more than tenfold.* This new approach, which one researcher likens to “attracting moths,” promises to give experimenters the trapping time they need to build nanoscale structures and may open the way to working with nanoparticles inside biological cells without damaging the cells with intense laser light. NIST researchers’ new approach uses a control and feedback system that nudges the nanoparticle only when needed, lowering the average intensity of the beam and increasing the lifetime of the nanoparticle while reducing its tendency to wander.

New method increases the surface area of nanowires by “decorating” them with sinuous chains of metal oxide or noble metal nanoparticles

Though science has known for some time that ornamentation can greatly increase the surface area and alter the surface chemistry of nanowires, engineers at Stanford University have found a more effective method of decorating them that is simpler and faster than previous techniques. The development, say the researchers, might someday lead to better lithium-ion batteries, more efficient thin-film solar cells and improved catalysts that yield new synthetic fuels. The key to the Stanford team’s discovery was a flame. Engineers had long known that nanoparticles could be adhered to nanowires to increase surface area, but the methods for creating them were not very effective in forming the much-desired porous nanoparticle chain structures. Those other methods proved too slow and resulted in a too-dense, thick layer of nanoparticles coating the wires, doing little to increase the surface area. They dipped the nanowires in a solvent-based gel of metal and salt, then air-dried them before applying the flame. In the process, the solvent burns in a few seconds, allowing the all-important nanoparticles to crystalize into branch-like structures fanning out from the nanowires.

Materials Genome and the energy efficient soldier: University of Utah-led group gets $15 million from Army to help design new materials

US soldiers are increasingly weighed down by batteries to power weapons, detection devices and communications equipment. So the Army Research Laboratory has awarded a University of Utah-led consortium almost $15 million to use computer simulations to help design materials for lighter-weight, energy efficient devices and batteries. The consortium includes Boston University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Pennsylvania State University, Harvard University, Brown University, the University of California, Davis, and the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy. The Utah-led consortium calls itself Alliance for Computationally-guided Design of Energy Efficient Electronic Materials. The Army says its grant to Utah is for Multiscale Multidisciplinary Modeling of Electronic Materials. “Designing new, transformational materials for our soldiers is the aim of our Enterprise for Multiscale Research of Materials,” says John M. Miller, director of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. He says a strong foundation for that enterprise will be provided both by the University of Utah-led project, and by a related project led by Johns Hopkins University to understand how materials behave when subjected to high-velocity impacts - work aimed at developing new, lightweight materials to protect U.S. soldiers and vehicles. Miller says funding the research “also shows the Army’s commitment to the national Materials Genome Initiative.” President Barack Obama announced the initiative in June 2011 as a way to speed development and use of new materials.

Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems demonstrates power without the cord

Because of the limited lifespan, battery power is not a feasible option for many applications in the fields of medicine or test engineering, such as implants or probes. Investigators in Germany have now developed a process that supplies these systems with power and without the power cord. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS succeeded in wirelessly transmitting power from a portable transmitter module to a mobile generator module - the receiver. “The cylindrical shaped transfer module is so small and compact that it can be attached to a belt,” says Holger Lausch, scientist at IKTS. The transmitter provides an electric current of over 100 milliwatts and has a range of about 50 centimeters. As a result, the receiver can be placed almost anywhere in the body. “With our portable device, we can remotely supply power to implants, medication dosing systems and other medical applications without touching them - such as ingestible endoscopic capsules that migrate through the gastrointestinal tract and transmit images of the body‘s inside to the outside,” says Lausch. The generator module can be traced any time - regardless of power transfer - with respect to its position and location. So if the generator is located inside a video endoscopy capsule, the images produced can be assigned to specifi c intestinal regions. If it is placed inside a dosing capsule, then the active ingredient in the medication can be released in a targeted manner.

Atomic-scale visualization of electrons confirms theory of iron-based superconductors

Research at Cornell University has for the first time confirmed key theoretical predictions about how iron-based high-temperature superconductors behave. J.C. Séamus Davis, the James Gilbert White Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences at Cornell and director of the Center for Emergent Superconductivity at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and colleagues report in the May 4 online edition of the journal Science that they have identified gaps in the energy levels of electrons in an iron-based superconductor that were predicted by leading theories in this new field. The gaps represent electrons that have paired up with twins from adjacent atoms to form so-called “Cooper pairs” that move through the conductor without interference. The research also confirms a prediction that the energy binding the Cooper pairs varies with the direction they take when leaving an atom. Studying crystals of a compound of lithium, iron and arsenic, LiFeAs for short, that becomes a superconductor at 15K (Kelvins, or Celsius degrees above absolute zero), the Cornell researchers found three of the five possible electron bands. “There are two more pairing gaps that we should have been able to detect, and we don’t know yet why not,” Davis said. But finding these three along with the directionality is enough to strongly support the theory, he said, and the measurements give the theorists numbers to plug in to refine and extend their predictions.

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Here’s what we are hearing:

GE Aviation expects to add 200 more area jobs

GE Aviation Systems’ $50 million investment on the University of Dayton campus bodes well for the company and the area, the company’s president and chief executive. In the past five years, GE Aviation has added 400 jobs at its three Dayton-area plants. In 2013, the company’s new Electrical Power Integrated Systems research and development center off River Park Drive will be operating. An initial 50 people will work there, but within five years, the center should employ 150 to 200 researchers, said Lorraine Bolsinger, GE Systems president and chief executive. At the center, UD researchers will work with GE Aviation scientists and engineers to create new advanced electrical power technologies such as new power systems for aircraft, longer-range electric cars and smarter utility power grids for more efficient delivery of electricity, GE Aviation said.

Alcoa’s “smog-eating” technology to bolster sustainability at new electronics recycling hub in North Carolina

Alcoa recently unveiled one of the first commercial building installations of Reynobond with EcoClean, the architectural panel that cleans itself and the air around it, at the new Electronic Recyclers International facility in Badin, N.C. The product is installed at ERI’s Southeast regional electronics recycling hub, which is expected to create up to 200 new jobs in central North Carolina. Introduced in 2011, EcoClean was developed by Alcoa scientists through a process that leverages patented Hydrotect technology to apply a titanium dioxide coating, called EcoClean, to the pre-painted aluminum surface of Alcoa’s Reynobond architectural panels. The coating works with natural sunlight, acting as a catalyst to break down organic pollutants on its surface and in the air around it into harmless matter which is then washed away by rainwater. Ten thousand square feet of EcoClean has the smog-removal power of approximately 80 trees, equivalent to offsetting the nitrogen oxide created by the pollution output of four cars per day.

Tnemec’s insulating coatings first to include Cabot aerogel

The Tnemec Co. has introduced the first thermal insulating coatings featuring Enova aerogel by Cabot Corp. Series 971 Aerolon Acrylic and Series 975 Aerolon Epoxy are fluid-applied, high-build coatings that are designed to resist high operating temperatures when spray-applied to piping, tanks, valves or other steel substrates in refineries, processing plants and other industrial facilities. The Aerolon coatings are comparable to most conventional forms of industrial insulation. The thermal insulation properties of Aerolon coatings provide safe-touch performance on hot pipes and other surfaces to prevent serious worksite accidents. And their low K-value ratings offer thermal efficiencies that result in substantial energy cost reductions. Aerolon coatings are water-based with practically zero volatile organic compounds, minimizing environmental impact. Once mixed, Aerolon resembles a slurry that can be spray applied. Aerolon coatings are part of a complete system that includes specialty primers and topcoats, Tnemec said.

Surmet-led team wins DARPA Phase II award for ALON Manufacturable Graded Refractive Index (M-GRIN) lenses

During the M-GRIN program’s first phase, Surmet demonstrated the ability to create ALON GRIN lens blanks with axial gradients. During Phase II Surmet will develop the ability to extend the magnitude and spatial extent of these gradients, using processes compatible with large volume manufacturing. At the culmination of the Phase II effort, Surmet will use proprietary fabrication processes to produce several prototype ALON GRIN lenses and deliver them to DARPA. The University of Rochester will develop the metrology used to characterize the ALON GRIN lens blanks and lenses produced during this program. The U of R will also lead the design effort to exploit the advantages of ALON M-GRIN lenses for Advanced DoD optical systems. Ed White Consultants will guide the manufacturing readiness assessment of the MGRIN technology. Surmet will also include DoD Prime Contractors in the program to facilitate the transition of the ALON M-GRIN technology into military systems.

3M expands US Paints and Coatings Lab

3M Energy and Advanced Materials Division announced the rededication of its newly-expanded US Paints and Coatings Laboratory. With a significant investment in new analytical equipment and additional technical personnel, the 3M EAMD Paints and Coatings lab is now even better equipped to provide outstanding customer service for a growing global market. The expanded capabilities of the lab, located in St. Paul, Minnesota, will enable improved levels of technical support and formulation assistance to customers around the world. For example, 3M research specialists use American Society for Testing and Materials’ test methodology to evaluate the performance of formulations that incorporate 3M products, including 3M Ceramic Microspheres, 3M Fluorosurfactants, 3M Glass Bubbles and 3M Stain Resistant Products.

Alfa Aesar launches catalog and periodic table app

Alfa Aesar, a Johnson Matthey Company, has unveiled the Alfa Aesar App for iPhone, iPad and Android. Users of the app will have access to a fully-functional digital version of Alfa Aesar’s popular print catalog as well as reference materials. The Alfa Aesar app is available free to download from the iTunes Store and Google Play. In addition to a full listing of Alfa Aesar products and technical specifications, the iPad version will also provide users with an interactive periodic table that details properties for each element. The app also links to the Alfa Aesar website, allowing users to quickly purchase products they find within the app. Users will also be able to save catalog pages as PDFs, email content to a friend, or add notes and bookmarks.

Keyence offers super-resolution digital microscope with automated measurements

Pioneering the field of digital microscopy, Keyence has released its latest microscope system, the VHX-2000. The VHX Series digital microscope was designed to alleviate the shortcomings of traditional, optical light microscopes - shallow depth-of-field, short working distance, lack of portability and versatility, sample limitations, etc. By integrating advanced zoom optics with a CCD camera, 17″ LCD monitor, light source, controller and analysis/reporting software, the VHX streamlines testing and improves the speed and efficiency of the inspection process. With a magnification range from 0.1x - 5000x, the VHX Series enables a wide range of microscopic observation from macro-scale stereoscopic imaging to the detailed analysis of an SEM. Many lighting techniques are also supported including bright and dark field, transmitted, polarized, and differential interference observation.

Diamon-Fusion International completes large-scale coating and restoration project for Claremont McKenna College

Diamon-Fusion International Inc., a global developer and exclusive licensor of patented hydrophobic nanotechnologies, announced the completion of a coating and glass restoration project for Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. The project consisted of applying DFI’s flagship Diamon-Fusion coating to over 15,000 square feet of glass at various sections of the newly constructed Kravis Center, designed by well-known architect Rafael Viñoly-Menendez. The center consists of a five-level, 162,000 square-foot academic and administrative facility, serving as the western gateway to the Claremont McKenna campus. Through DFI’s patented nanocoating process, the treatment to the glass facade creates a water repellent effect which enables ease of cleaning and protection against scratches, abrasion and environmental elements, therefore considerably reducing the overall costs of maintenance to the building. The nanocoating is optically clear, and does not affect the natural reflection of the glass exterior.

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About two weeks ago, I wrote about a startup company founded by two ex-materials science students that goes by the name of Power Practical. The company has developed some nifty thermoelectrics gadgets called PowerPots that combined a camper’s cookpot with an integrated power-generation system that could be used for LED lights, charging cell phones and enabling other USB devices.

One of the intriguing things (for me, anyway) is that instead of bootstrapping their enterprise via traditional investment sources, Power Practical turned to Kickstarter, a three-year-old crowdfunding project. With Kickstarter, projects must set a fundraising goal and are given a chance to make an online pitch for supporters to pledge anywhere from $1 up to hundreds of dollars, typically using a stair-step offer of premiums (like your local PBS station pledge drive). Through Kickstarter web pages, companies, such as Power Practical, can make use of videos, links to external websites, Facebook pages and anything else they can think of to help sell the idea of why they deserve monetary support. The only catch is that they have 30 days to reach their fundraising goal — and then its all or nothing: If your goal was $30,000 and you only got $27,000 pledged, you get nothing at the end of the 30 days. (There is some more fine print: If a company reaches its goal, Kickstarter takes a 5 percent commission, and Amazon, which handles the pledge/investment transactions, also takes a cut.)

Returning to Power Practical and PowerPots, the company’s Kickstarter goal was $50,000, but, hell, they soared past that weeks ago. Today is the last day of their 30-day period and they have raised more than $126,000!

Lest any reader think reaching this level of Kickstarter success is easy, a New York Times infographic shows that only 44 percent of the projects reach their goals, and the average financing for technology projects is only $11,704. So, relatively speaking, Power Practical/PowerPots smacked a Kickstarter home run.

Microfinancing efforts, such as Kickstarter, won’t replace in the materials science world’s corporate investments, venture capital or government support, but my guess is that this is still relatively unexplored territory. The New York Times story published around the time Practical Power jumped on Kickstarter reports on how projects have been moving from mainly novelty efforts to more serious tech-oriented proposals:

Although the site first began as a way for people to raise money for quirky projects like pop-up wedding chapels, around-the-world boating trips and offbeat documentaries, it quickly expanded to include video game production, feature films and innovative new gadgets, like the Elevation dock, a sleek stand for the iPhone, or Brydge, which turns an iPad into a laptop resembling the MacBook Air.

The NYT story also makes a great point that “Kickstarter offers budding entrepreneurs a way to float ideas and see if there’s a market for them before they trade ownership of their company for money from venture capitalists.”

Kickstarter isn’t alone. Sites, such as RocketHub, and IndieGoGo are doing similar things.

Despite the success of PowerPots and other tech-oriented proposals on these sites, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that not everyone is convinced that these general-interest crowdfunding websites are the best match for science and applied science ideas. Along these lines, two environmental scientists, Jarrett Byrnes and Jai Ranganathan, launched the #SciFund Challenge last year with a “call to arms” written by Byrnes.

The current rate of funding for science proposals in the U.S. is ~20%. … All of the traditional sources of cash for science — the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, NASA, private foundations — are getting harder and harder to access. And the situation is probably only going to get worse. So what is a scientist to do? … We’d like to propose an experiment to fund our science in an entirely new way — the #SciFund Challenge.

The #SciFund Challenge isn’t really a stand-alone website, but is apparently a subset of the larger RocketHub, mentioned above. It seems that the organizers try to package and publish a multitude of funding proposals in a series of “rounds” that are featured on RocketHub for one month. “Round 2″ was launched this week and includes proposals from 70 different researchers. Here is a look at them:

According to the #SciFund Challenge blog, over $15,000 was raised during the first 24 hours.

What do you think? Is crowdfunding sci-tech work and startups a novelty or something that will eventually be engrained as another go-to option for researchers and entrepreneurs?

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It is. Or, it isn’t.

“Ceramic white” in previous versions, from what I can tell wasn’t really ceramic, so I suspect “ceramic blue” isn’t either. Maybe if there is an S4, they could roll out a new color called “ceramic terra cotta.”

So, bottomline, I dunno. But if they want to send ACerS one to have tested, I am sure I can find a few needy grad students who would be happy to confirm the ceramic content.

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