AZoNano editor Alina catches up with Dr Selina Ambrose, Promethean Particles, at HiPerNano 2018.
Please give an introduction to your company.
I'm Selina Ambrose, and I am the Technical Manager at Promethean Particles. We're an SME based in Nottingham, and we manufacture inorganic particles. We have a patented process for making nanoparticle dispersions. We make all sorts of materials such as metals, like copper and silver; metal oxides, like titanium dioxide, cerium dioxide; and then more complex materials like barium titanate. We make everything as dispersions so we don't have the health and safety issues associated with dry powder techniques of making nanoparticles.
What are you here to promote in particular today?
A lot of our focus at the moment is on our copper nanodispersions which can be used for inks and for printed electronics because of their conductive properties.
What are the applications of your products?
As well as the copper for printed electronics, we also make metal organic frameworks (MOFs). These are highly porous materials that can be used for gas absorption, carbon capture, catalysis. Other materials that we make, such as the metal oxides, can be used for coatings, catalysts, and electronics.
What do you hope to gain from HiPerNano today?
We want to get the word out there about the kind of materials we make, what our technology can do, and see if there are any partners out there for collaborative projects or customers looking to buy some nanomaterials that we can help them with.
What does your ideal customer look like?
Typically, because of the materials that we make, we are very early on in the supply chain. At the moment the customers that we work with tend to be ink formulators or developers, using nanomaterials and putting them into a composite or a product, and then those products can then go into something else.
Say, for example, some of the materials we make go into coatings for automotives, so the coatings manufacturers are our customer. In essence, the next step of the supply chain.