You just don’t expect a glorious moment when you’re searching for more information about a glass company but I had it on seeing some of the gallery images at the Curvet website (Italy),

_Edilizia facciate, vetrate isolanti, fotovoltaic (Curvet Italy website)

Getting to the news part of this, Curvet has signed with Diamon-Fusion international (they produce nanocoatings used on glass) for a third renewal  of their licensing deal. From the May 17, 2012 news item on Nanowerk,

Diamon-Fusion International, Inc. (DFI), global developer and exclusive licensor of patented hydrophobic nanotechnologies, announced today the renewal of its license agreement with Italian glass manufacturer Curvet Group, one of the world’s leaders in the fabrication of specialty bent and flat glass in the architectural field for its application license agreement for Diamon-Fusion® glass nano-coating. This is the third renewal for Curvet Group and extends the partnership with DFI into 2017. For over a decade, Curvet has utilized DFI’s industrial flexibility in its 3D ultra-efficient CVD chamber, a patented technology that showcases DFI’s exclusive production capabilities.

Here’s a little more about Curvet,

Curvet Group produces glass for use in many different applications, incorporating modern stylish designs and a myriad different colors and effects, while maintaining and enhancing the inherent safety aspects and practical uses of this versatile product. Its wide-range of market segments include; home furnishings, bathroom furniture, automotive, transportation, marine, construction, architecture, urban furniture, household appliances, lighting and new technologies. In addition, the importance of renewable energy products today is an area in which glass plays a prominent part and where Curvet is an international leader in the field.

Curvet, a 30-year Italian privately-held holding group, is the only company in Europe that is able to produce bent glass of every type with unique and innovative solutions for every sector. The differentiation in equipment and the resulting flexibility are the key factors of Curvet’s success. It is the only company to carry out the whole processing of flat glass into any kind of curved finished product. Curvet is also a manufacturer of tempered, laminated and security glass with strategic distribution and sales offices in Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, Russia, USA and Morocco.

I have mentioned Diamon-Fusion and its technology previously (in a Nov. 26, 2009 posting and in a Feb. 11, 2011 posting) but here we go again with a very brief description  (from the May 17, 2012 news item),

Through DFI’s patented nano-coating process, the treatment to the glass creates a water repellent effect which enables ease of cleaning and protection against scratches, abrasion, hard water, soap scum, mildew and environmental elements, therefore considerably reducing the overall costs of maintenance. The Diamon-Fusion® nano-coating is optically clear, and does not affect the natural reflection of the glass.

If you want to see more beautiful images of Curvet glass, go here and click on the coloured boxes.

There’s more than one NCC, which I’ve used exclusively as an abbreviation for nanocystalline cellulose. There’s also nanocrystalline Cobalt according to the May 9, 2012 news item on Nanowerk highlighting another NCC and Toronto’s Integran Technologies, Inc.,

Toronto-based Integran Technologies, Inc. (Integran) today announced that it has reached an agreement with Enduro Industries LLC (Enduro) to extend Enduro’s license exclusivity term for Integran’s nanocrystalline Cobalt electroplating process, Nanovate™ CoP, in the US fluid power market by five years.

Enduro Industries LLC of Hannibal, Missouri, a subsidiary of PTC Alliance, and a major manufacturer of hard chrome steel bars and tubes for the fluid power industry, has successfully marketed a corrosion and wear resistant Nano-CobaltTM alternative alongside its conventional engineered hard chrome (EHC) ChromerodTM and Chromrod ExtremeTM product lines.

I notice they don’t use the NCC abbreviation; I imagine they would prefer to avoid any confusion.  Integran’s company president and CEO (Chief Executive Officer), Gino Palumbo goes on to hint at further developments due to this renewed licensing agreement but offers no details, from the news item,

“Furthermore, this agreement will now extend to other Cobalt-based Nanovate coatings systems and a new field repair process recently developed by Integran.”

I have mentioned Integran before, most recently in an April 16, 2012 posting about a Canadian federal government investment in the company and in a March 26, 2012 posting about a deal with Pratt & Whitney Canada.

According to the May 4, 2012 Abakan, Inc. press release on BusinessWire,

Due to the prevalent favorable conditions to set up operations in Alberta, Canada, Abakan Inc.’s (otcqb:ABKI) Board of Directors has decided to locate a collaborative research and development center for wear resistant materials in Alberta, Canada. …

Upon initiation of Alberta operations under subsidiary MTC Corporation (Mesocoat Technologies Canada Corporation), Abakan will collaborate with the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), and the Alberta Innovates Technology Futures’ (AITF) advanced materials team and infrastructure. MTC Corporation will leverage Alberta’s world-class research institutes to reduce technical execution risk and accelerate the development, validation, and market entry of MesoCoat’s revolutionary, low cost and high performance nanocomposite materials and high productivity cladding process into the oil sands, mining and mineral processing industries in Alberta and elsewhere.

…

The Alberta location offers significant growth opportunities for MesoCoat; with announced capital investments in the oil sands industry due to triple production in the next four years markets for wear resistant materials are also expected to grow proportionately from $350M/year to over $1B/year. MesoCoat’s CermaClad technology offers the highest productivity and lowest life cycle cost of any application technology in the market today. MesoCoat’s CermaClad technology offers the ability to produce high-quality weld overlays 15-40X faster, and with dramatically improved microstructures and performance compared to legacy weld overlay processes. MTC Corporation’s Alberta development activities will accelerate the commercial readiness of MesoCoat’s low cost nanocomposite overlay materials, which in laboratory testing have shown 3X lower wear rate than current available overlay products at comparable cost structures.

I haven’t found any announcements from government (provincial [Alberta] or federal [Canada]) agencies, which is a bit surprising. They are usually very happy to take some credit for attracting business.

You can find more about Abakan here and about MesoCoat here.

According to the May 4, 2012 Abakan, Inc. press release on BusinessWire,

Due to the prevalent favorable conditions to set up operations in Alberta, Canada, Abakan Inc.’s (otcqb:ABKI) Board of Directors has decided to locate a collaborative research and development center for wear resistant materials in Alberta, Canada. …

Upon initiation of Alberta operations under subsidiary MTC Corporation (Mesocoat Technologies Canada Corporation), Abakan will collaborate with the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), and the Alberta Innovates Technology Futures’ (AITF) advanced materials team and infrastructure. MTC Corporation will leverage Alberta’s world-class research institutes to reduce technical execution risk and accelerate the development, validation, and market entry of MesoCoat’s revolutionary, low cost and high performance nanocomposite materials and high productivity cladding process into the oil sands, mining and mineral processing industries in Alberta and elsewhere.

…

The Alberta location offers significant growth opportunities for MesoCoat; with announced capital investments in the oil sands industry due to triple production in the next four years markets for wear resistant materials are also expected to grow proportionately from $350M/year to over $1B/year. MesoCoat’s CermaClad technology offers the highest productivity and lowest life cycle cost of any application technology in the market today. MesoCoat’s CermaClad technology offers the ability to produce high-quality weld overlays 15-40X faster, and with dramatically improved microstructures and performance compared to legacy weld overlay processes. MTC Corporation’s Alberta development activities will accelerate the commercial readiness of MesoCoat’s low cost nanocomposite overlay materials, which in laboratory testing have shown 3X lower wear rate than current available overlay products at comparable cost structures.

I haven’t found any announcements from government (provincial [Alberta] or federal [Canada]) agencies, which is a bit surprising. They are usually very happy to take some credit for attracting business.

You can find more about Abakan here and about MesoCoat here.

They raise my hopes then dash them to the ground; still, this is very exciting news for anyone wanting self-cleaning windows. The April 26, 2012 news item on Nanowerk features some of the latest work from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) on nanotextures and ‘multifunctional’ glass,

One of the most instantly recognizable features of glass is the way it reflects light. But a new way of creating surface textures on glass, developed by researchers at MIT, virtually eliminates reflections, producing glass that is almost unrecognizable because of its absence of glare — and whose surface causes water droplets to bounce right off, like tiny rubber balls.

The new “multifunctional” glass, based on surface nanotextures that produce an array of conical features, is self-cleaning and resists fogging and glare, the researchers say. Ultimately, they hope it can be made using an inexpensive manufacturing process that could be applied to optical devices, the screens of smartphones and televisions, solar panels, car windshields and even windows in buildings.

Here’s what they mean by ‘conical features’,

Through a process involving thin layers of material deposited on a surface and then selectively etched away, the MIT team produced a surface covered with tiny cones, each five times taller than their width. This pattern prevents reflections, while at the same time repelling water from the surface. Image: Hyungryul Choi and Kyoo-Chul Park

David Chandler in his April 26, 2012 news release for MIT explains,

The surface pattern — consisting of an array of nanoscale cones that are five times as tall as their base width of 200 nanometers — is based on a new fabrication approach the MIT team developed using coating and etching techniques adapted from the semiconductor industry. Fabrication begins by coating a glass surface with several thin layers, including a photoresist layer, which is then illuminated with a grid pattern and etched away; successive etchings produce the conical shapes. The team has already applied for a patent on the process.

Since it is the shape of the nanotextured surface — rather than any particular method of achieving that shape — that provides the unique characteristics, Park and Choi [MIT mechanical engineering graduate students Kyoo-Chul Park and Hyungryul Choi] say that in the future glass or transparent polymer films might be manufactured with such surface features simply by passing them through a pair of textured rollers while still partially molten; such a process would add minimally to the cost of manufacture.

If you’re guessing that nature inspired some of this, read on (from Chandler’s MIT news release),

The researchers say they drew their inspiration from nature, where textured surfaces ranging from lotus leaves to desert-beetle carapaces and moth eyes have developed in ways that often fulfill multiple purposes at once. Although the arrays of pointed nanocones on the surface appear fragile when viewed microscopically, the researchers say their calculations show they should be resistant to a wide range of forces, ranging from impact by raindrops in a strong downpour or wind-driven pollen and grit to direct poking with a finger. Further testing will be needed to demonstrate how well the nanotextured surfaces hold up over time in practical applications.

The chief excitement seems to centre around applications with solar panels (from Chandler’s MIT news release),

Photovoltaic panels, Park explains, can lose as much as 40 percent of their efficiency within six months as dust and dirt accumulate on their surfaces. But a solar panel protected by the new self-cleaning glass, he says, would have much less of a problem. In addition, the panel would be more efficient because more light would be transmitted through its surface, instead of being reflected away — especially when the sun’s rays are inclined at a sharp angle to the panel. At such times, such as early mornings and late afternoons, conventional glass might reflect away more than 50 percent of the light, whereas an anti-reflection surface would reduce the reflection to a negligible level.

While some earlier work has treated solar panels with hydrophobic coatings, the new multifunctional surfaces created by the MIT team are even more effective at repelling water, keeping the panels clean longer, the researchers say. In addition, existing hydrophobic coatings do not prevent reflective losses, giving the new system yet another advantage.

More testing is needed and while they do fantasize about wider applications (car windows, microscopes, cameras, smartphones, building windows, etc. mentioned earlier in this posting)  for this technology there are no immediate plans to fulfill my dream of self-cleaning apartment windows and mirrors.

They raise my hopes then dash them to the ground; still, this is very exciting news for anyone wanting self-cleaning windows. The April 26, 2012 news item on Nanowerk features some of the latest work from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) on nanotextures and ‘multifunctional’ glass,

One of the most instantly recognizable features of glass is the way it reflects light. But a new way of creating surface textures on glass, developed by researchers at MIT, virtually eliminates reflections, producing glass that is almost unrecognizable because of its absence of glare — and whose surface causes water droplets to bounce right off, like tiny rubber balls.

The new “multifunctional” glass, based on surface nanotextures that produce an array of conical features, is self-cleaning and resists fogging and glare, the researchers say. Ultimately, they hope it can be made using an inexpensive manufacturing process that could be applied to optical devices, the screens of smartphones and televisions, solar panels, car windshields and even windows in buildings.

Here’s what they mean by ‘conical features’,

Through a process involving thin layers of material deposited on a surface and then selectively etched away, the MIT team produced a surface covered with tiny cones, each five times taller than their width. This pattern prevents reflections, while at the same time repelling water from the surface. Image: Hyungryul Choi and Kyoo-Chul Park

David Chandler in his April 26, 2012 news release for MIT explains,

The surface pattern — consisting of an array of nanoscale cones that are five times as tall as their base width of 200 nanometers — is based on a new fabrication approach the MIT team developed using coating and etching techniques adapted from the semiconductor industry. Fabrication begins by coating a glass surface with several thin layers, including a photoresist layer, which is then illuminated with a grid pattern and etched away; successive etchings produce the conical shapes. The team has already applied for a patent on the process.

Since it is the shape of the nanotextured surface — rather than any particular method of achieving that shape — that provides the unique characteristics, Park and Choi [MIT mechanical engineering graduate students Kyoo-Chul Park and Hyungryul Choi] say that in the future glass or transparent polymer films might be manufactured with such surface features simply by passing them through a pair of textured rollers while still partially molten; such a process would add minimally to the cost of manufacture.

If you’re guessing that nature inspired some of this, read on (from Chandler’s MIT news release),

The researchers say they drew their inspiration from nature, where textured surfaces ranging from lotus leaves to desert-beetle carapaces and moth eyes have developed in ways that often fulfill multiple purposes at once. Although the arrays of pointed nanocones on the surface appear fragile when viewed microscopically, the researchers say their calculations show they should be resistant to a wide range of forces, ranging from impact by raindrops in a strong downpour or wind-driven pollen and grit to direct poking with a finger. Further testing will be needed to demonstrate how well the nanotextured surfaces hold up over time in practical applications.

The chief excitement seems to centre around applications with solar panels (from Chandler’s MIT news release),

Photovoltaic panels, Park explains, can lose as much as 40 percent of their efficiency within six months as dust and dirt accumulate on their surfaces. But a solar panel protected by the new self-cleaning glass, he says, would have much less of a problem. In addition, the panel would be more efficient because more light would be transmitted through its surface, instead of being reflected away — especially when the sun’s rays are inclined at a sharp angle to the panel. At such times, such as early mornings and late afternoons, conventional glass might reflect away more than 50 percent of the light, whereas an anti-reflection surface would reduce the reflection to a negligible level.

While some earlier work has treated solar panels with hydrophobic coatings, the new multifunctional surfaces created by the MIT team are even more effective at repelling water, keeping the panels clean longer, the researchers say. In addition, existing hydrophobic coatings do not prevent reflective losses, giving the new system yet another advantage.

More testing is needed and while they do fantasize about wider applications (car windows, microscopes, cameras, smartphones, building windows, etc. mentioned earlier in this posting)  for this technology there are no immediate plans to fulfill my dream of self-cleaning apartment windows and mirrors.

Tong Lin and his research team at Deakin University in Australia have developed a coating that is super hydrophopic, i. e., water repellent. Actually, it repels more than just water, from the April 25, 2012 news item on Nanowerk,

Scientists are reporting development and successful testing of a fabric coating that would give new meaning to the phrase “stain-resistant” — a coating that would take an active role in sloughing off grease, dirt, strong acids and other gunk. The report, which shows that the coating is even more water-repellent than car wax or Teflon, appears in ACS’ journal Langmuir (“Photoreactive Azido-Containing Silica Nanoparticle/Polycation Multilayers: Durable Superhydrophobic Coating on Cotton Fabrics”).

There is more information about the coating, including a video, in an April 26, 2012 article by Jason Palmer for BBC News online,

The new work hinges on what is known as layer-by-layer self-assembly – basically dipping a fabric into a solution over and over again to deposit multiple layers on it.The team from the Australian Future Fibres Research and Innovation Centre at Deakin University made their solution with tiny particles of silica – the same material as sand.

Crucially, they added a few chemical steps to coat the particles with long chemical tails ending in what are known as azido groups.

…

… baked under a source of UV light, the tails on the particles were made to interlink with one another, forming a far tougher structure within and across the layers.

Apparently the coating remains intact on the fibres for up to 50 laundry washings.There is more here about Dr. Lin and his work on fibres.

While searching for Tong Lin on the internet I came across a Buddhist practice, Tonglin or Tonglen.

Tong Lin and his research team at Deakin University in Australia have developed a coating that is super hydrophopic, i. e., water repellent. Actually, it repels more than just water, from the April 25, 2012 news item on Nanowerk,

Scientists are reporting development and successful testing of a fabric coating that would give new meaning to the phrase “stain-resistant” — a coating that would take an active role in sloughing off grease, dirt, strong acids and other gunk. The report, which shows that the coating is even more water-repellent than car wax or Teflon, appears in ACS’ journal Langmuir (“Photoreactive Azido-Containing Silica Nanoparticle/Polycation Multilayers: Durable Superhydrophobic Coating on Cotton Fabrics”).

There is more information about the coating, including a video, in an April 26, 2012 article by Jason Palmer for BBC News online,

The new work hinges on what is known as layer-by-layer self-assembly – basically dipping a fabric into a solution over and over again to deposit multiple layers on it.The team from the Australian Future Fibres Research and Innovation Centre at Deakin University made their solution with tiny particles of silica – the same material as sand.

Crucially, they added a few chemical steps to coat the particles with long chemical tails ending in what are known as azido groups.

…

… baked under a source of UV light, the tails on the particles were made to interlink with one another, forming a far tougher structure within and across the layers.

Apparently the coating remains intact on the fibres for up to 50 laundry washings.There is more here about Dr. Lin and his work on fibres.

While searching for Tong Lin on the internet I came across a Buddhist practice, Tonglin or Tonglen.

Iranian scientists are using lecithin to synthesize and bind silver nanoparticles more tightly to wool according to this April 25, 2012 news item on Nanowerk,

“Bearing the basic concepts of the green chemistry in the mind, we have managed to synthesize the nanoparticles both in the aqueous phase and over a woolen medium. We employed Lecithin to serve as the stabilizer and carrier of the silver nanoparticles through the woolen medium,” says Hossein Barani, a member of the research group [at Amirkabir University of Technology, Iran].

The goals targeted by this research project apparently include the synthesis of silver nanoparticles with the help of Lecithin as a biodegradable surface active agent, to apply environmentally friendly chemicals in the synthesis of nanoparticles, simultaneous synthesis and loading of the nanoparticles into the fiber structures which effectively improves the quality and durability of the washing.

“Lecithin acts as a stabilizer for the silver nanoparticles during their synthesis step and also is the vehicle by which the nanoparticles are transferred into the woolen fiber structures. The prepared silver nanoparticles possess approximate dimensions of 7 nm and are entrapped inside a liposomic vesicle,” Barani added.

Here are some of the advantages (from the news item),

“Simultaneous synthesis and loading of the silver nanoparticles is in favor of the loading efficiency and durability of washing. In addition, the presence of Lecithin boosts the loading quality, avoids excessive concentration of the nanoparticles upon the fibers’ surfaces, reduces the undesired yellowing of the fabric, and increases the antibacterial performance through a gradual release with lowest toxicity for fibroblast cells,” he reiterated.

Apparently, it would be fairly easy to transfer this process to industry (from the news item),

Barani also evaluated the commercialization of the method as promising, and said, “In case of industrial investment, the proposed approach can be implemented to the production line of textile companies with practical ease.”

The April 2012 item by Jan Suszkiw of the US Dept. of Agriculture (on the Western Farm Press website) seemed strangely familiar as it focused on research into flame-retardant cotton. From the Suszkiw article,

In one ongoing project, the researchers have teamed with Texas A&M University scientists to evaluate a first-of-its-kind, environmentally friendly flame-retardant for cotton apparel and durable goods. Halogenated flame retardants have been among the most widely used chemical treatments, but there’s been a push to find alternatives that are more benign and that won’t cause treated fabric to stiffen, according to Condon [Brian Condon, Agricultural Research Service [ARS]).

I mentioned the research work in the context of a 2011 meeting of the American Chemical Society in my Sept. 6, 2011 posting (scroll down about 3/4 of the way) except the focus was on the Texas A&M University in College Station research team who had yet to collaborate with Condon’s team at the ARS,

In responding to the need for more environmentally friendly flame retardants, Grunlan’s [Jaime C. Grunlan] team turned to a technology termed “intumescence,” long used to fireproof exposed interior steel beams in buildings. At the first lick of a flame, an intumescent coating swells up and expands like beer foam, forming tiny bubbles in a protective barrier that insulates and shields the material below. The researchers are at Texas A&M University in College Station. …

Since the meeting last fall, the two teams (US ARS [Condon] and Texas A&M [Grunlan]) have collaborated to make cotton more flame retardant according to the April 2012 news article (Cotton Gets Nanotech and Biotech Treatment in New Orleans) on the US Dept. of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service website (Note: I have removed a link),

Condon and CCUR (Cotton Chemistry and Utilization Research Unit) chemist SeChin Chang are collaborating with Texas A&M University (TAMU) scientists to evaluate a first-of-its-kind, environmentally friendly flame retardant for cotton apparel and durable goods.

Halogenated flame retardants have been among the most widely used chemical treatments for cotton. But there’s been a push to find alternatives that are not only more benign, but that also avoid imparting the same stiffness to fabric characteristic of some chemical treatments. For these and other reasons, “the textiles industry would like to move away from using halogenated flame retardants,” says Condon.

Made of water-soluble polymers, nanoscale clay particles, and other “green” ingredients, the ARS-TAMU flame retardant is applied as a nanocoating that reacts to open flame by rapidly forming a swollen, charred surface layer. This process, known as “intumescence,” stops the flame from reaching underlying or adjacent fibers.

A team led by Jaime Grunlan at TAMU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, in College Station, Texas, originally developed the intumescent nanocoating using a layer-by-layer assembly. In this procedure, alternating layers of positively and negatively charged ingredients, including clay particles 50-100 nanometers wide, are deposited onto the surface of a desired material. The result is a striated nanocoating that, when viewed under a scanning electron or other high-powered microscope, resembles the stacked layers of a brick wall.

Condon’s interest was piqued after listening to Grunlan discuss his team’s research at a recent American Chemical Society meeting, and he approached the TAMU professor about potential benefits to cotton. That conversation, in turn, led to a cooperative research project enabling Condon and Chang to evaluate the nanocoating at CCUR.

Treating cotton for flame resistance isn’t a recent concept, adds Condon, whose lab is part of the ARS Southern Regional Research Center in New Orleans. In fact, some of the most successful early treatments were born of research conducted by Benerito [Ruth Benerito] and colleagues there several decades ago. (See “Cross-Linking Cotton,” Agricultural Research, February 2009, pp. 10-11.) Condon coauthored a 2011 ACS Nano paper on the potential of intumescent coatings together with Chang, Grunlan and his TAMU team, and Alexander Morgan of the University of Dayton Research Institute in Ohio.

Early trials of the nanocoating using standard flame-resistance tests are promising. In one case, 95 percent of treated cotton fabric remained intact after exposure to flame, whereas the untreated fabric used for comparison was completely destroyed

“What we’re investigating now is how well it will perform after repeated launderings of treated fabric,” says Condon. “After all, the coating contains clay, and that’s something detergents are made to remove.”

Even if the coating does eventually wash out and the treated fabric loses its flame resistance, the nanotech approach could still be used to protect textiles and durable goods that aren’t frequently washed, such as upholstery, mattress pads, box spring covers, automotive interiors, and firefighter coats.

This is one of the images that accompany the article,

Cross-section of a cotton fiber with clay nanoparticles attached. (from: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/apr12/cotton0412.htm)

If you are interested in the work being done by the US Dept. of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service on cotton, there’s a lot more than I managed to excerpt.