High-tech on a very small scale

Company explores uses of nanotechnology

By:Charlie Olsen
   A local physicist and his company are working on developing environmentally friendly coatings that might some day enable consumers to go longer between putting air in tires and buy food with a longer shelf-life.
   Harris Goldberg works for InMat Inc., short for Innovative Nanocomposite Materials on Route 206. InMat’s field is nanotechnology, an industry that studies and looks for ways to exploit materials so small they’re measured at the molecular level.
   The company works specifically with sheets of vermiculite clay suspended in water. The sheets — thinner than a human hair — are used to create coatings that could allow manufacturers to create better products using less material.
   "Anything that is plastic or rubber is permeable — a balloon filled with helium starts to come down in a matter of hours," Mr. Goldberg said. "Barrier coatings try to keep gases and chemicals from going through these materials."
   One example of an application is a coating called Air D-Fense 2000 that would significantly cut down on the size of the butyl rubber coating on the inside of tires to help them retain their air.
   Now, tire manufacturers need to line the inside with 1 mm of rubber; but with Air D-Fense 2000, that coating would only have to be 30 microns thick — by comparison, a human hair is anywhere from 50 to 100 microns in diameter.
   "A tire manufactured that way would be tighter and cooler. It would hold air better and there would be less to throw away," Mr. Goldberg said. The material would cut rolling resistance, which would also help cut fuel consumption.
   According to Mr. Goldberg, InMat is currently in the process of getting a patent that would allow them to apply their technology to food packaging in coatings as thin as 0.25 microns – for scale, the average pinhead is 1,000 to 2000 microns in size.
   Potato chip packaging usually consists of a nontransparent plastic bag with a foil-covered interior because the fat in the chips spoils if it’s exposed to too much oxygen.
   Using InMat’s coating, potato chip manufacturers could apply a coating that would protect just as well, allow them to use transparent recyclable plastic.
   Mr. Goldberg said that he is also working on a number of different defense contract applications such as thin chemical, oil and fire resistant gloves — as well as a few he can’t discuss.
   According to Mr. Goldberg, the "holy grail of packaging" lies in plastic beer bottles coated with his materials. InMat coatings could allow a beer manufacturer to bottle their product with plastic, while maintaining the freshness and shelf life comparable to glass.
   "Beer is extremely sensitive to oxygen," Mr. Goldberg said. "If you put it in a plastic bottle, it would only have a shelf-life of a few weeks."
   InMat gets its funding from venture capitalists like Pangaea Venture – a Canadian company with a regional office on Amwell Road led by InMat board member Purnesh Seegopaul – and angel investors, such as Wayne Tamarelli.
   Mr. Goldberg, the president of the company, said he and InMat Vice President Carrie A. Feeney chose Hillsborough almost seven years ago because it had the right light industrial zoning and office space, and it was a convenient commute for his employees.
   Although they don’t create applications directly, InMat’s technology was featured in a Wilson Sporting Good’s Double Core tennis ball line: the official ball of the Davis Cup in 2002.
   Though the tennis ball line is now discontinued, Mr. Goldberg said, they are always looking at new applications, such as beer bottle applications.