Residents of Binghamton University’s Start-Up Suite Prepare to Take Nanotechnology to Market

Every academic researcher hopes that his or her discoveries will break new ground. And a growing number of Binghamton University faculty are working to make that ground the foundation of a profitable business.

Howard Wang and C.J. Zhong have joined the ranks of Binghamton University researchers building toward commercial success. Wang, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, has worked to perfect electronic inks, infused with nanomaterials, that could find their way into wallpaper computer screens or clothes that regulate body temperature. Zhong, an associate professor of chemistry, has developed nanoparticle-based sensor arrays that could someday monitor air for noxious chemicals, or check diabetics' sugar levels without drawing blood. Both recently started firms to bring their discoveries to market, and both new companies are getting a boost in Binghamton University's Start-Up Suite.

Wang, vice president and chief scientific officer of NanoMas, founded the company in January with fellow researchers ZhihaoYang, president and chief technology officer, and Tom Xu, vice president and chief operating officer. The NanoMas team has developed efficient, cost-effective processes for manufacturing electronic inks made of silver and zinc oxide nanoparticles suspended in liquid.

The inks serve as conductors and semiconductors. Printing them onto thin, flexible substrate, manufacturers can mass-produce circuitry much as a printing press cranks out newspaper sheets. Along with paper-thin video screens and clothing that heats and cools as needed, these light, flexible electronics could form the basis for environmental sensors.

They could also enable a new, less-expensive generation of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, which manufacturers will embed in product packaging to help retailers manage inventory.

Today, though, manufacturers that are developing machines to print electronic circuitry in high volume are getting ready to bring their products to market, probably by 2008. Once they do, demand for electronic inks will surge. Although many researchers are working on electronic inks, NanoMas's nanoparticles are ideally suited to that application, Wang said. "For performance, smaller is definitely better, but smaller also means more unstable-difficult to make as well as difficult to use." NanoMas has struck a balance between small and stable.

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