Industrial wastewaters as a source for Li, Ni, Co,…

At Particular Materials, we are approaching a few selected partners to form a consortium in the field of advanced energy storage materials.

The idea we are discussing with each partner is the possibility of using industrial wastewaters as a source for Li, Ni, Co, Mn, and Fe for the manufacturing of cathodic materials.

At Particular Materials, we manufacture high-quality nanomaterials through a continuous flow hydrothermal synthesis capable of several 100kg/day of output. In the last couple of years, our view has shifted from laboratory quality reagents to industrial quality and waste quality reagents to reduce cost, increase sustainability with the aim of direct upcycling of industrial waste to high-value materials.

We have already demonstrated at the industrial scale that we can use industrial wastewaters as a source of reagents such as Li, Ni, Co, Mn, and Fe, then through our process are transformed into high-quality LFP and NMC cathodic nanopowders.

The idea is to further develop these materials towards characterization and industrial application, to turn them into batteries and electrochemical devices. The source of these critical raw materials coming from industrial wastewater for full circularity.

We are therefore looking for an Industrial Partner that can manufacture the cell with our energy storage materials and that can also potentially possess high competencies and know-how in cathodic material characterization.

At the same time, we are looking for an Academic or Research Center Partner that can help us characterize in detail the materials both phase, morphology, and functional characterization.

As a startup we can offer outstanding process flexibility, high skilled personnel in Materials Science and Engineering, availability of high-quality nanomaterials both at the R&D level, pilot plant level, and industrial production level.

If you wish to discuss further this opportunity, please contact Riccardo Momoli at r.momoli@particularmaterials.com

Antibacterial and photoactive coating BCTR1005 applied at Villa Selvatico

Today we have visited Villa Selvatico near Battaglia Terme (PD), a very renowned thermal bath located in the Colli Euganei, Padova.

The building from the 16th century is currently undertaking extensive renovation before its grand opening this summer. The exterior of the villa is completed covered in trachyt, a natural local stone.

We worked in partnership with the owners to find a solution to keep clean the exterior of the villa, and at the same time provide antibacterial protection to its guests.

It is great to see that a product developed in the lab at the nanoscale and manufactured at a large scale by Particular Materials, can find application in such an extraordinary location”

says Ing. Adriano Miola, the owner of Villa Selvatico.

With BCTR 1005 we have developed a coating for exteriors that is at the same time photocatalytic and antibacterial”

adds Riccardo Momoli, Sales & Marketing Manager for Particular Materials.

Today marks the first milestone in moving the product from the lab to a larga scale application, where thousands of squared meters will be covered with BCTR 1005.

BCTR 1005 is a dispersion of TiO2 nanoparticles decorated with silver nanoparticles in water, specially designed to take advantage of the photocatalytic effect of TiO2 when illuminated by UV radiation from natural sunlight, and the antibacterial and antiviral properties of silver nanoparticles, which are active both in the sun and in the dark.

We have treated the surface at different product concentrations, to follow over time the behavior of the coating with tests such as bacterial swabs and bacterial counts.

The photocatalytic performance will be evaluated in comparison with untreated surfaces, over time.

Once the most effective concentration has been determined by the tests, we will proceed in treating all the exterior surfaces of Villa Selvatico.

Stay tuned for what comes next!

If you would like to know more about BCTR 1005 and its photocatalytic and antibacterial properties, just drop an email to we.are@particularmaterials.com

Intervista a Marco Bersani per La Repubblica

La sfida interessante della ricerca sui nanomateriali è quella di uscire dal laboratorio di ricerca per arrivare alla produzione industriale.

Portare un nanomateriale che ha performance eccellenti in laboratorio alla scala industriale, non è banale ”

Marco Bersani, CEO

Continua a leggere l’articolo su Repubblica:

https://www.repubblica.it/dossier/economia/i-gioielli-del-made-in-italy/2020/12/21/news/che_grandi_cose_puo_fare_quel_nanomateriale-277946785/

Particular Materials publishes its first paper!

Many thanks to the work performed by Dr. Dario Mosconi, Dr. Marco Sturaro, Dr. Marco Bersani, Dr. Matias Blanco and Professor G. Granozzi that lead to the publication of Particular Material’s first paper:

Selective and scaled-up continuous flow synthesis of manganese oxide nanocatalysts for single electron transfer reactions.

Chemical Engineering Journal Volume 417, 1 August 2021, 129063

As we know, the application of high-quality nanomaterials in industrial products and processes can be hindered by their actual market availability at a large scale, mostly due to preparation methods that can be hardly scalable for cost, reproducibility, sustainability, or complexity issues. 

In this paper, the technology of Particular Material’s (CFHS) has been used to prepare various nano Mn oxides in supercritical water with common and low-cost precursors and additives, yielding an outstanding production rate of 1 Kg/day. 

Among the results, we observed exquisite selectivity, consistency, phase control e replicability of the synthetic conditions. All the 6 phases of Mn oxides (MnO, α-MnO2, β-MnO2, λ-MnO2, Mn2O3, Mn3O4) together with LiMn2O4 oxides were obtained with reproducible characteristics.

As a case study, all MnOx nanomaterials were tested as catalyst precursors in the Single Electron Transfer (SET) oxidation of olefins with 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds, obtaining recyclable active materials whose respective activity depends on the particular oxide structure, therefore proving the importance of phase selectivity in the final application.

For more information about this story, contact Dr. Dario Mosconi: d.mosconi@particularmaterials.com

Do you have a special need for the synthesis of nanomaterials? Contact our technical team at we.are@particularmaterials.com

EIT Raw Materials representative Fabio Pegorin visits Particular Materials

Today, Fabio Pegorin from EIT Raw Materials has visited Particular Materials in Padova, where we welcomed him to our brand new location to update him about our recent activities and achievements.

Just a week ago we commissioned our latest plant, capable of producing up to 1.5 kg/h of nanomaterials. In the background, you can see our R&D plants and two production plants at display.

With the support of the EIT Raw Materials Booster Program, Particular Materials was able to prove and demonstrate the scalability of the use Silver Cyanide toxic wastewater, coming from the plating industry, as a source for the synthesis of new nanomaterials.

Moreover, during the project GREEN Silver, Particular Materials has developed a novel antibacterial and antiviral product named Bactron (BCTR 1005).

Currently, the product is under testing with our partners for its antibacterial activity in the dark and photocatalytic and antibacterial activity in the sunlight.

We are pleased to continue our collaboration with EIT Raw Materials, and Fabio Pegorin has updated us on recent future opportunities such as the Booster Call 2021, and the participation in Call for Projects 2022 (KAVA).

Also, Particular Materials has recently become a proud member of ERMA, the European Raw Material Alliance, where we are promoting our technology for the synthesis of nanomaterials starting from industrial wastewaters.

In detail, we have discussed the opportunity to participate in the ERMA Cluster on Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion, which addresses critical and strategic raw materials needed for Energy Storage and Conversion applications, such as batteries, fuel cells, solar and hydrogen, and other alternative energy storage and conversion systems.

We are looking forward to becoming an active member of this cluster and to find partners that are willing to further develop anode materials such as LFP and NMC.

For further information on Particular Material’s projects and partnerships, feel free to write us an email at we.are@particularmaterials.com

Particular Materials joins the European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA)

Since February 1st, 2021, Particular Materials has become a proud member of ERMA, the European Raw Material Alliance, where we are promoting our technology for the synthesis of nanomaterials for the green transition, starting from industrial wastewaters.

We will become an active member in the ERMA Cluster on Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion, which addresses critical and strategic raw materials needed for Energy Storage and Conversion applications, such as batteries, fuel cells, solar and hydrogen, and other alternative energy storage and conversion systems. We are looking forward to findind partners that are willing to further develop our materials such as LFP and NMC.

The European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA) aims to make Europe economically more resilient by diversifying its supply chains, creating jobs, attracting investments to the raw materials value chain, fostering innovation, training young talents, and contributing to the best enabling framework for raw materials and the Circular Economy worldwide.

The Alliance addresses the challenge of securing access to sustainable raw materials, advanced materials, and industrial processing know-how. By 2030, ERMA’s activities will increase the production of raw and advanced materials and address Circular Economy by boosting the recovery and recycling of Critical Raw Materials. More specifically, the Alliance will:

• Bolster the creation of environmentally sustainable and socially equitable innovations and infrastructure
• Implement a Circular Economy of complex products like electric vehicles, cleantech, and hydrogen equipment
• Support Europe’s raw materials industry capability, to extract, design, manufacture, and recycle materials
• Promote innovation, strategic investment, and industrial production across specific value chains

For further information on Particular Material’s project and partnerships, feel free to write us an email at we.are@particularmaterials.com

Particular Materials takes part as a speaker to The…

Particular Materials has been selected to be a presenting company at the Tech Tour Raw Materials Venture Forum, which takes place on September 30th, 2020.

Riccardo Momoli, our Sales & Marketing Manager, will showcase the startup portfolio as well as the capabilities to partner with several industrial sectors for the introduction of nanomaterials in new products and processes.

The key topic discussed will be:

“Since nanotechnologies are so important, what is preventing them to bloom?”

We will talk around the 5 barriers to nanotechnologies entering the industrial market, namely scalability of the industrial process, quality control of the nanomaterials produced, availability at low prices and high volumes, replicability of nanomaterials properties at the industrial scale, and flexibility of the state of the art manufacturing platforms.

At Particular Materials, we are bridging the Manufacturing Gap.

We have developed a technology based on supercritical water, where we can control the nucleation and growth of nanoparticles.

We produce dispersions with a laboratory quality at an industrial scale and we have created a circular manufacturing platform for the synthesis of nanomaterials.

A quiet celebration: #1000!

Let us take a moment for a small, quiet celebration: the 15nm TiO2 dispersion (20% in ethanol) you see in the picture might seem boring, but for Particular Materials – Excellence in Nanoparticles it represents the production lot #1000.
Let’s keep on #bridgingthegap! 

Particular Materials has been selected by EIT Raw Materials…

At Particular Materials, we have patented a continuous flow technology capable of converting aqueous solutions of metal ions into ultrafine dispersions of the corresponding oxides, metals, or sulfides in water.
This process, which is the core business of Particular Materials, is intended to synthesize nanoparticle dispersions with extremely fine control on size, monodispersity, degree of aggregation, and composition.

In 2019, thanks to the EIT Raw Materials funded Project, Particular Materials was able to show that the commonly used precursors consisting of metals salts dissolved in water could be replaced with spent baths from the surface finishing industry, combining the production of high-quality nanomaterials with the removal and recovery of heavy metals from industrial wastewaters, through a sustainable and fully circular process.

As compared to incumbent technologies for wastewater treatment, our process does not produce any toxic sludge destined to landfills as special waste, steeply reducing costs. Also, we recover valuable metals to be reintroduced in the industrial process as secondary raw materials. Finally, we enable upcycling: the concept of manufacturing high-added-value compounds by directly processing metal-containing wastewaters, which is the goal of the GREEN Silver Project.

After exploring several applications, the first targeted market application for the GREEN Silver Project is the combined removal and recovery of silver from galvanic plating processes to obtain silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) for different application fields, directly from galvanic wastewaters while decomposing hazardous organics, like cyanides, in the resulting aqueous byproduct.

Particular Materials wins the Call for Innovation launched by…

Rome, 9 October 2019

Terna, the company that manages the Italian electricity grid, and Digital Magics EnergyTech, an incubation programme for digital start-ups in the energy sector, have chosen Particular Materials as winning start-up for the AMS – Advanced Materials for Sustainability Call for Innovation.

The call for Innovation was launched last July with the aim of developing cutting-edge solutions in the field of researching innovative materials in order to make electricity grid infrastructure even more efficient and sustainable. This involves construction materials, paint, nanomaterials and innovative and eco-sustainable environmental integration systems.

Particular Materials develops, produces and markets innovative nanomaterials using its proprietary green, flexible and scalable technology. The start-up’s project consists of creating a circular manufacturing platform for the integration of nanomaterials into industrial products.

Particular Materials is able to synthesise laboratory-controlled quality nanoparticles, but in massive quantities, through flexible, sustainable, safe and intelligent processes.

The start-up’s products can be used in coatings, catalysis, composites and biomedicine.

Particular Materials will be awarded € 15,000 as best innovative project in the field of Advanced Materials, materials which feature high levels of technology and contribute to improving our surrounding environments, making them not only more efficient and cost-effective, but also healthier and more sustainable in the long term.