A New Business on the Horizon
Local Start-up Aeroclay Inc. Arrives by Happy Accident

How do businesses get started in Northeast Ohio? Well, this one got started by accident using clay and water. That's way too simple you are thinking. Add a freeze dryer and some polymers and you've got the new clay aerogel composite material developed by Case Western Reserve University engineering professor David Schiraldi [pictured] and his research group.

"Much of the United States is made up of clay," he said. "It's amazingly simple. When we cleaned up the clay, it looked like kitty litter, dry and particulate. We put 5 percent clay with 95 percent water into a blender for two minutes, and poured the material into a container to freeze. After the clay solution is frozen, it is then transformed by a freeze-drying process into a light-weight, feathery, inter-connected fibrous new material," he explained.

The picture contains before/after scanning electron micrographs of the clay (i.e. clay and clay aerogel) as well as photos of some solid aerogel objects.

When Schiraldi and his students first started experimenting with the wet clay, they tried different combinations of materials to see the results. Student Louis Somlai showed it was possible to produce light weight materials. A second student, Suneel Bandi, showed that polymers could be combined with clay to produce stronger, more robust substance. Graduate student Matt Gawryla, expanded the use of freeze drying of the clay mixtures (a process that takes the moisture out like with food used on camping trips and for space shuttle missions); he developed a wide range of surprisingly unexpected airy, fibrous materials. Hmm...their brains started thinking about the possibilities.

Dr. Schiraldi and his students brainstormed the next step and decided to add a water-soluble polymer substance to the material, and came up with a new foam material with potential for heat and sound insulation. The clay aerogel is being developed so that with different additives, the properties of the new material changes, from rigid to rubbery, always maintaining low density and therefore light weight. Add casein, a dairy protein from cheese production waste, and the clay aerogel withstands high temperatures to 300 degrees centigrade. Add a polyimide or epoxy, and you have a high performance composite.

A chemist by training, Schiraldi worked in research and new product development for 20 years at Hoechst Celanese, one of the world's largest chemical companies, before joining the faculty as an associate professor of macromolecular science and engineering at the Case School of Engineering seven years ago. "There are 1800 polymer companies in Ohio," he said, "and it is the second largest industry in this state after agriculture." With a strong paint industry in Cleveland and rubber in Akron, this area naturally has a high concentration of polymer research, study, and product development. Case Western Reserve University and University of Akron offer two of the five stand alone polymer schools in this country.

In 2005, Schiraldi won the first place prize in the North Coast Nanotechnology Business Idea Competition, $75,000 toward funding his new start-up company AeroClay Inc. Along with his student research team, they have already filed for five patents on the new "green" material, different product applications, and freeze drying processes, with more to come. Clay aerogel is considered "green" because it gets away from oil production materials. For example, Styrofoam®, an oil-based polystyrene product, is widely used for packaging and plates and cups. What if the Styrofoam were replaced with clay aerogel, a natural material where no oil was used in its manufacturing process?

Another use would help lighten bags of kitty litter. What if the 40-pound kitty litter bags were replaced with the same quantity of clay aerogel pellets instead weighing just five pounds? The clay aerogel pellets were tested with synthetic cat urine and found to be just as absorbable as regular cat litter, only now the kitty litter bags are much lighter in weight and easy to carry out of the store. A big improvement!

With the new material's amazing sound and temperature insulation properties, Schiraldi sees great potential for future product development. "We are in conversations with possible business partners in the area along with investors. Our first step is to move off campus and into a business incubator. This has been a terrific, real world experience for the graduate students here to experiment with clay aerogel composite materials to determine properties and uses," he concluded.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Susan Schaul susn1ATatt.net
(:divend:)