QuantumSphere Newsletter, June 2005

Welcome!
 The QuantumSphere monthly e-newsletter is your insight to how and where our metallic nanopowders are being used, advanced material applications and other industry news as they relate to QuantumSphere. We hope you enjoy the June issue, and look forward to your feedback.

In this issue…

  • The Latest QuantumSphere Announcements:
       o QuantumSphere Retains Natural Carbon, LLC to Accelerate
          Business Development Initiatives

  • QuantumSphere In the News:
       o Military & Aerospace Electronics: Nanotechnology Delivers Military Power, May 2005
       o Mechanical Engineering: Spheres of Influence, April 2005

  • In the Classroom:
       o Coatings and Sealants

  • QuantumSphere is Hiring: Two Positions Posted


    • The Latest QuantumSphere Announcements:
    QuantumSphere Retains Natural Carbon, LLC to Accelerate Business Development Initiatives



    QuantumSphere, Inc. has further accelerated our position as a top manufacturer of pure metallic nanopowders for the wide spectrum of markets demanding advanced material applications by tapping industry business development expert Natural Carbon, LLC. The retention of Natural Carbon will provide QuantumSphere with seasoned business development expertise that will aggressively drive our growth, commercialization of new products and market expansion via sales of our current product lines that are experiencing unprecedented demand around the world. Natural Carbon is a San Jose, CA business development firm founded by John Barratt to provide market development assistance to technology companies.

    “John Barratt’s proven business development expertise will ultimately assist QuantumSphere to penetrate new growth areas, accelerate revenues and increase profitability,” said Kevin Maloney, CEO, QuantumSphere, Inc. “Natural Carbon’s exceptional business development track record will further compliment our outstanding management team as we continue our growth path as a global manufacturer and provider of products in a wide variety of industries.”

    “I am extremely pleased to work with QuantumSphere’s diverse, accomplished management team to help establish new markets for the company’s products in; catalysis, coatings, sealants, electrodes, filtration, medical, water hydrolysis and a number of other applications,” said Barratt. “Natural Carbon’s business experience will help establish QuantumSphere as a leader in these multi-billion dollar markets.”

    For more information on Natural Carbon please visit     www.naturalcarbon.com.

    Read Full Release


    QuantumSphere In the News:


    Military & Aerospace Electronics: Nanotechnology Delivers Military Power, May 2005
    By Ben Ames

    Army leaders are looking for a 21st century battlesuit. The lycra-tight clothing must stop bullets, detect chemical and biological agents, monitor a wounded soldier’s vital signs, administer basic first aid, and communicate with headquarters. One approach could provide answers for all those challenges-nanotechnology. In March 2002, Army planners granted $50 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., to create the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies. Across the country, military research dollars are flowing to nanotechnology laboratories, as engineers find ways to build more-efficient batteries, more-powerful fuel cells, more-receptive solar cells, more-affordable titanium metal, and more-sensitive chemical and biological agent detectors. Nanotechnology is no longer a dream discipline for future research-it is creating products for specific applications today.

    Every November, military planners at the U.S. Army’s Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., invite nanomaterial producers to describe their wares. In 2004, leaders from QuantumSphere Inc. unveiled their new factory in Costa Mesa, Calif. The company can create 2,500 pounds per month of nanoaluminum and nanonickel powders to make better propellants and munitions. Workers in the new factory can create consistently sized particles, each coated with an oxide shell; uncoated nanometal powders will automatically weld to each other. Each nanonickel powder particle is 8 to 10 nanometers in diameter-about 10 atoms across, says Doug Carpenter, QuantumSphere’s chief science officer and cofounder. In the past, factories created nanopowders by smashing large blocks of material into tiny bits, yet QuantumSphere’s new facility evaporates the original material into atomic particles, condenses it, and mixes it with oxygen gas to create the coating.

    Military applications include more than munitions. Military designers are trying to replace platinum as the standard catalyst in fuel cells. Expensive and heavy, platinum loses efficiency as it gets carbonized during temperature cycles, he says. QuantumSphere’s powder could be a solution. The company’s engineers mix those tiny particles into a substrate to create membranes and filters that are thin and durable. Such reinforced materials can survive many more thermal cycles than standard membranes, and they can serve as drop-in replacements for platinum in either solid oxide or PEM (proton exchange membrane) fuel cells.

    Continue Reading Article




    Mechanical Engineering: Spheres of Influence, April 2005
    By Joseph Romano

    The sphere is a wonderful shape: It has the smallest surface area encompassing a given volume. That’s great if you want to limit the amount of material exposed to an environment or build the largest enclosure with a given amount of material. Geodesic domes, for instance, are really efficient, even if they lack aesthetic appeal. But not every application needs this kind of efficiency. Often, it is surface area that is needed – maximizing surface is vital to making catalysts work. To get a large surface, some manufacturers create tortured, distended, difficult-to-make shapes. Surprisingly, a sphere can work, too. If you shrink the volume of a sphere by a factor of 1,000 and the surface goes down by only a factor of 100. Make the spheres small enough, and even quotidian metals can do amazing things. That’s one of the promises of nanoparticles, minuscule bits of material that have properties the same material in larger sizes does not. Nanoparticles, the first real commercial breakthrough in nanotechnology, are now found in everything from paint to tennis balls.



    But it is as catalysts and reactants that nanoparticles may have their biggest impact. These nanoscale metals have already made their way into rocket fuel and explosives. And they may well be able to cheaply replace platinum in fuel cell applications. Catalysts help foster chemical reactions without being consumed themselves. For many applications, the best catalyst is platinum, which is found in catalytic converters in automobiles and in oil refineries. Platinum is so prized and so rare that pound for pound it’s worth more than gold. That puts a crimp in many plans to use catalysts more widely. One major challenge in bringing down the costs of some fuel cells, for example, has been the need for platinum catalysts. Spread thinly across a membrane, the platinum in these cells separates protons from electrons in hydrogen atoms. Platinum is the best catalyst by far, but other materials can do much the same work, if at slower intrinsic reaction rates. Lithium, nickel, and copper can be used to catalyze many of the same reactions.

    Continue Reading Article


    In The Classroom:
    Coatings and Sealants

    QuantumSphere’s magnetic, conductive and highly catalytic metallic nanopowders offer increased performance for coatings, sealants and polymers.

    Their uses include:
  • Thin Films
  • Paints
  • Polymers
  • Gaskets

    Their Enhanced Performance Characteristics Include:
  • Highly Conductive
  • Magnetic
  • Anti-Corrosive
  • Increased Durability
  • Increased Thermal Conductivity
  • Antimicrobial
  • Abrasion Resistance
  • Radio Frequency Shielding

    The QSI-nanoTM solutions:
  • Nickel
  • Silver
  • Copper
  • Proprietary Alloys

    • QuantumSphere is Hiring:
    Two Positions Posted

    Sr. Chemistry Specialist, 2005-04
    Chemistry Specialist, 2005-04

    Position Type: Full Time; Relocation Provided: No

    Candidate Profile/Criteria:
  • Professional and academic background broad enough to include surface chemistry, chemical engineering and inorganic chemistry
  • Can work in demanding start-up environment and has fabrication, proto-type design and applications development background
  • Prior success in scaling up to commercial production
  • Applications background in corrosion, solar & fuel cells, gas separation and/or surface chemistry
  • Commitment – requires 60 to 80 hours per week
  • Strong technical driver – communicate insights and hands-on results to team and help drive execution of goals
  • Able to rapidly digest results and feedback into process
  • Proven ability to work with small teams in multi-tasking environment
  • Prefer good communication skills with upper management, peers, team
  • Prefer experience with small company or small team in larger company
  • Ph.D. in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, or associated disciplines
  • Motivated to build successful company
  • Salary commensurate with experience
  • Candidates must be U.S. citizen
    • Company stock options and standard benefits package available

    For application consideration please send cover letter and resume to:
    Kevin D. Maloney, CEO
    QuantumSphere, Inc.
    1041 W. 18th Street, Suite B-102
    Costa Mesa, CA 92627


    Reader Feedback:.
    We value your comments. Please send us your ideas and suggested topics to:     [email protected].


    QuantumSphere is the leading manufacturer of metallic nanopowders for applications in the aerospace, defense, energy, biomedical and other markets demanding advanced material applications. QuantumSphere’s exclusive manufacturing process provides: consistent, narrow particle size distribution; low level of agglomeration and impurities; custom-tailored oxide shell thickness; and the highest purity metallic nanopowders on the market that are easier to transport and handle. The company manufactures the highest quality of metallic nanopowder in the industry without compromising its commitment to the environment. No other company offers these performance advantages. QuantumSphere is the only supplier of the world’s highest quality nanonickel (n-Ni). This will replace platinum as the main catalyst in hydrogen fuel cells and provide a renewable source of power to supply the world’s energy needs. The company is leveraging its leading market position in nanonickel (n-Ni) to manufacture and ship product for applications in fuel cells, magnetic medical products (e.g., contrast agent that is orders-of-magnitude more sensitive than existing materials for MRI detection of disease and organ function), and other applications including additives for plastics and electromagnetic frequency shielding applications.

    QuantumSphere
    1041 West 18th Street, Suite B102
    Costa Mesa, CA 92627
    Phone: 949-574-3000
    Fax: 949-574-3010
    www.qsinano.com