Discover new technologies by our partners

The company has developed inkjet-printed perovskite solar cells. The combination of the innovative technology and unique perovskite features gives exceptional advantages over traditional silicon-based systems.The company offers solar modules that are flexible, lightweight, extremely thin, and can adjust to various surfaces. The transparency level and shapes of the solar modules can be customised. On top of that, the perovskite solar cells operate well when the exposure to light is limited and under artificial lighting conditions.Many sectors require a lot of freedom in design or are restricted by access to sunlight. The excellent versatility of the products unlocks multiple opportunities for generating additional power. The company is primarily focused on partnering with companies in the following sectors: commercial and industrial construction, Internet-of-Things (IoT), urban architecture, transportation, and space.

Separation of oil/water mixture using wetting materials has been extensively investigated. However, the wastes released in industrial processes such as multi-phase liquids extraction, food industries or chemical reaction contain more complicated liquids components. The technology presents a novel strategy to prepare a broad range of superlyophobic materials based on polydopamine (PDA) mediated coating. The results demonstrate that the deposition of PDA nanoparticles enhances the growth of silicone microsheets (SMS), which increases trapped air fraction and results in superlyophobicity towards high surface tension liquids and superlyophilicity to liquids with surface tension smaller than 30 mN/m. Superlyophobic sorbents generated from melamine foam and polyurethane foam can absorb various oils with capacity from 53 g/g to 120 g/g (melamine foam) and from 26.5 g/g to 52.5 g/g (polyurethane foam), depending on the oil type and density. High absorption capacity of porous foams towards oils makes them possible to remove low surface tension liquids from a batch of high surface tension immiscible organic liquids such as formamide or diethylene glycol. On the other hand, superlyophobic membranes fabricated from stainless steel mesh, cotton fabric and filter papers can filter chloroform and carbon tetrachloride from water and formamide with efficiency higher than 96%. All as-prepared superlyphobic materials show excellent regeneration. The preparation of superlyophobic materials introduced in this work opens a general strategy for separation of immicible liquids by both static and continuous methods. The technology provider is seeking partner for research collaboration, scale-up testing/test-bedding, product co-development, technology licencing or manufacturing.    

Typically, a hydrophobic coating is achieved by surface modification, using treatments that involve adherence, absorption or coating of micro- or nanostructures. These coatings work in biomimetic ways, where they mimic the mechanism of naturally hydrophobic occurrences, such as lotus leaves, rose petals and duck feathers. The hydrophobic properties can be explained by two types of wetting behaviours called the Wenzel state or Cassie state, which rely on surface roughness or air pocket formation to boost hydrophobic properties.This coating technology offers not only hydrophobic properties, but also self-cleaning, UV-blocking, and antifogging properties. Its ability to be applied to a variety of substrates offers the potential for a wide range of uses.

This invention is related to a novel chemical process for extracting and recycling lead from lead acid battery paste and lead ores using a batch of non-acidic and non-hazardous solvents. This method is based on the complete dissolution of all lead compounds except metallic lead at ambient conditions and without using furnace or strong acids to extract lead. The solution is then reduced to metal lead by multivalent metal nano powder (lead reduction promoter catalysts) without employing an electric current.This solution can be dissolved using a high-speed stirrer without emitting any kind of toxic gas at a pH ranging from 6 to 8. The sponge lead was then converted to cold press ingot after filtration. The extracted lead has a purity above 95% and no further purification is required. This method can also be used to extract lead from ore such as PbS by one step converting process.The technology provider is currently seeking business partners for technology licensing.

The sensor technology is based on molecular imprinting and piezoelectric effect that enable real-time and label-free sensing of mass changes and energy dissipation on a surface originated from molecules adsorption, and molecular interactions, with high sensitivity and selectivity. This technology leverages on nanomaterial technology, enabling convenient and cost-effective chemical and biological detection for on-site applications.

The technology, termed DNA sequence-topology assembly for multiplexed profiling (DNA STAMP), is a 3D barcoding platform for multiplexed profiling of subcellular protein expression and distribution. It comprises three functional steps – cellular targeting, 3D barcode generation and multiplexed readout of expression and distribution. For cellular targeting, antibodies conjugated with unique short DNA strands (Ab-short DNA) are used to label specific cellular proteins. Next, 3D barcodes are generated in situ from the bound antibodies, through nanostructure-assisted ligation of DNA tetrahedron probes with localisation identifiers. Once ligated, the 3D barcodes unfold and dissociate to liberate a pool of diverse, linear STAMP barcodes. Each STAMP barcode thus reflects the target marker’s identity, quantity as well as its subcellular distribution pattern.

The rapid evolution of forward osmosis (FO) within the last decade has led to the commercial implementation of the technology in the power generation sector and will address the desalination markets and the re-use needs for industrial need. Unlike reverse osmosis which uses the application of high applied pressures, FO involves the energy free and spontaneous transfer of water through a semi-permeable membrane from a “contaminated” wastewater stream to a draw solution of higher ionic strength. Conventional draw solutions are challenging because the salt cannot be easily removed from the used or saturated draw solution following FO presenting a barrier to commercial implementation. The proposed technology has addressed this challenge through a proprietary FO process using “switchable” draw salt (mixture of trimethylamine and CO2) as the draw solution. During FO, the draw solution is diluted by fresh water flowing across the membrane. The application of moderate heating (~70 degC) to the diluted draw solution “switches” the salt into the two commodity gases that can be readily removed leaving behind clean water as the final process product. The gases are recovered and recycled to regenerate the concentrated draw solution in a continuous closed loop process. The technology provider has designed, built, and tested the full process at pilot scale using fully scalable off-the-shelf equipment and has completed a 1st order design basis to 250 m3/day scale and can project scalability to thousands of cubic metres per day. The technology provider is seeking for a technology adaptor either as a partner or licensee.

A company has designed and developed a novel and convenient way to synthesise nano-sulfur particles, which can be directly used as a highly effective sulfur fungicide in crop protection. While bulk sulfur fungicide is commercially available in the market, this nano-sulfur fungicide offers higher efficacy due to its higher surface area and smaller particle size. The nano-sulfur fungicide developed by this company has been scientifically proven to work against six fungi species at minimum concentrations, and may be used directly after synthesis with no costly and time-consuming additional steps needed. Field trials carried out with The Horticultural Crop Research and Development Institute of Sri Lanka (HORDI) obtained positive results for vegetables such as okra and tomatoes. The technology provider is looking for a partner to license the technology and move into the market.

Removal of malodours and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are of key importance to improve air quality and overall quality of life. A proprietary technology based on the use of cucurbiturils has been developed for the capture of unpleasant smells and volatile compounds. The technology is several orders of magnitude more efficient than current state-of-the-art, cyclodextrin and activated charcoal, that have to be formulated in the presence of fragrances to mask their lack of performance. The technology has demonstrated to be effective in a wide range of product matrices and environmental conditions.