University of Waterloo announces a licensing agreement with Milliken & Company for its technology on Hydrosilylation of Polypropylene targeted for additives for specialty chemical market
The University of Waterloo announced today that it has secured a licensing agreement with Milliken & Company for its technology on Hydrosilylation of Polypropylene targeted for additives for specialty chemical market. Traditional hydrosilylation processes utilize solution chemistry that requires subsequent precipitation and drying processing steps, both of which require higher energy, material handling, and labour costs. Waterloo’s licensed technology offers a unique way to produce hydrosilylated polypropylene in the melt phase, thus allowing for a single step reactive-extrusion process to be utilized which also results in reduced environmental impact.
An invention by a team led by Dr. Costas Tzoganakis, a University of Waterloo chemical engineering professor, now makes it possible to bring added value to specialty chemical additives. Although Waterloo’s technology has been developed with reference to polypropylene, the process is applicable to all types of polyolefins or any other polymers which are inert to the conditions of the hydrosilylation. This process provides a way to modify polypropylene with desirable functionality, such as increased adhesion, chemical reactivity, or hydrophilicity characteristics and could be of interest to manufacturers of modified\engineered plastics and elastomers.
Working in partnership with WatCo, Dr. Costas Tzoganakis secured funding to apply for broad intellectual property rights and to develop and test pre-commercial prototypes that ultimately were used to showcase this technology for commercialization. Milliken, a leader in specialty chemicals and a manufacturer of specialty additives worldwide quickly recognized the market opportunity to combine Waterloo’s technology in their line of products. WatCo worked closely with Dr. Costas Tzoganakis and Milliken chemists during the licensing process which resulted in Milliken securing an exclusive license for the technology. Moreover, Milliken and Dr. Tzoganakis plan to embark on future collaborative research projects to develop more products related to the background technology to be marketed globally.
About
Milliken
&
Company
By
combining
science
with
design
and
insights,
Milliken
tackles
the
issues
and
concerns
of
today.
Milliken
has
long
led
the
way
for
"knowledge-based"
investment,
and
has
accumulated
over
2,200
U.S.
patents
-
and
more
than
5,000
patents
worldwide
-
since
its
founding
in
1865.
The
Company
has
39
manufacturing
facilities
located
in
the
U.S.,
U.K.,
Belgium,
France
and
China,
and
with
other
sales
and
service
operations
throughout
the
Americas,
Europe
and
Asia,
Milliken's
nearly
7,000
associates
work
to
create
entirely
new
customer
experiences,
build
for
the
future
and
create
products
that
do
good
for
the
world.