SANTA
ANA, CA, U.S.A. - November 14, 2005 - QuantumSphere,
Inc., the leading manufacturer of metallic nanopowders
for applications in aerospace, defense, energy, electronics
and other markets demanding advanced material applications,
announced it received Frost & Sullivan’s
2005 Technology Innovation of the Year Award in the
area of Metallic Nanopowder Technologies. QuantumSphere
is the only supplier of the world’s highest
quality magnetic, conductive and catalytic metallic
nanopowders, including QSI-nano™ nickel, silver,
copper, cobalt and other proprietary nanoscale alloys.
QSI-nano™ alloys will ultimately replace platinum
as the main catalyst in a variety of fuel cells and
will also be used in high performance batteries.
Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this Award
to a company that has exhibited technological superiority
within its industry.
The Award recognizes the ability of the company
to successfully develop and introduce new technology,
formulate a well-designed product family, and make
significant product performance contributions to
the industry. Research Methodology and Selection
Process Criteria To choose the Award recipient,
Frost & Sullivan’s
analyst team conducted a selection process that
included primary interviews and extensive primary
and secondary research via a bottom-up approach.
The analysts team shortlists candidates on the
basis of a set of qualitative and quantitative
measurements. The analyst also considers the pace
of research and technology innovation and the significance
or potential relevance of the innovation to the
overall industry. The ultimate Award recipient
is chosen after a thorough evaluation of this research.
Additionally, there are specific criteria used
to determine the final rankings. The recipient
of this Award has excelled based on the following
criteria:
----Significance of the innovation(s) in the industry,
and across industries
----Potential of the products
of innovation(s) to become industrystandard(s)
----Competitive advantage of innovation vis-à-vis
other related ones
----Impact (or potential impact)
of innovation(s) on company or industry mindshare
and/or company bottom line
----Breadth of intellectual
property related to the innovations (i.e.patents,
scientific publications, papers in peer-reviewed
journals).
“Frost & Sullivan’s Technology Innovation
of the Year Award in the field of metallic nanopowder
technologies went to QuantumSphere, Inc. in recognition
of the company’s development of a novel automated
vapor-deposition based process technology for the
production of high-quality metallic nanopowders and
alloys,” said Anil Naidu, Research Analyst. “These
materials could ultimately replace platinum as the
main catalyst in a variety of fuel cells and battery
electrodes, in addition to being used in ‘traditional’ areas
such as coatings, conductive inks, filtration membranes
as well as for structural applications,” added
Naidu.
“This Award further validates the viability
of our go-to-market strategy, products, dominant
intellectual property portfolio and the outstanding
quality of our seasoned scientific team,” said
Kevin Maloney, CEO, QuantumSphere, Inc. “We
appreciate that a leading growth consulting firm
has formally recognized the fundamental breakthrough
quality of QuantumSphere’s technology,” Maloney
added. QuantumSphere’s bottom-up process combines
conventional gas-phase condensation methods with
the firm’s own intellectual property, to develop
nanopowder particles with a highly controlled particle
size, uniform distribution and custom tailored oxide
shell thickness.
Resistance heating is used to first liquefy and
then vaporize the metal precursor, which is then
exposed to the laminar flow of inert gasses to
condense the metal into spherical nanoparticles
meeting specification requirements. The use of
resistance heating and vapor condensation helps
produce higher purity nanopowders with reduced
degrees of agglomeration.
QuantumSphere’s process is fully automated
and highly scalable, governed by a proprietary software
system monitoring and controlling up to 23 different
metrics on the production process. This confers key
advantages to QuantumSphere’s production process:
the high degree of control over a wide range of parameters
provides repeatability, allowing the particle size
distribution, oxide shell thickness, and particle
characteristics to be maintained across small batches
and large continuous production runs. It also makes
QuantumSphere’s process more flexible, allowing
production to be adapted and modified to meet specialized,
application-specific needs generated by different
clients or partners. Also each process can be easily
optimized to meet defined requirements for oxide
shell thickness, consistent particle size and uniform
distribution. This capability is significant given
the largely customized, case-by-case, application-centric
nature of metallic nanopowders. This process is environmentally
friendly and generates metallic nanopowders that
are safer to handle and more easily dispersed in
a variety of solutions and polymers.
QuantumSphere has established intellectual property
in key processes related to the production, collection,
and dispersion of nanopowders, for instance, in terms
of the control of the laminar gas flow around the
particles to produce nanopowders of particular size,
purity and oxide shell thickness.
QuantumSphere also has intellectual property filed
on nano-enabled catalyst devices for applications
in the battery and fuel cell markets. QuantumSphere ’s
efforts have also focused on increasing strength
to weight ratios for composites, and on increasing
the toughness of these nanomaterials. The firm ’s
research and development team has focused on micro
fuel cell devices for energy storage, batteries and
in the area of, hydrogen generation and storage for
renewable energy. A proprietary nickel/cobalt alloy
was developed earlier in 2005 and recently validated
as an excellent catalyst material for Zinc/air batteries.
These nano alloys will replace expensive platinum
as a catalyst in a variety of fuel cell devices and
potentially help spur the growth of this market. About QuantumSphere, Inc.
QuantumSphere is the leading manufacturer of metallic
nanopowders for aerospace, defense, energy, transportation,
electronics, and other markets demanding advanced
material applications. QuantumSphere’s exclusive
manufacturing process provides consistent and narrow
particle size distribution, low levels of agglomeration
and impurities, a custom-tailored oxide shell thickness,
and the highest purity metallic nanopowders on
the market that are easier to transport and handle.
The company accomplishes this without compromising
its commitment to the environment and the community.
No other company offers these performance advantages.
QuantumSphere is the only supplier of the world’s
highest quality magnetic, conductive and catalytic
metallic nanopowders, including QSI-nano™ nickel,
silver, copper, cobalt and other proprietary nanoscale
alloys. QSI-nano™ alloys will ultimately replace
platinum as the main catalyst in a variety of fuel
cells and battery electrodes, providing a renewable
source of power to supply the world’s energy
needs. The company is leveraging its leading market
position in metallic powders to manufacture and ship
materials and devices for applications in batteries,
fuel cells, conductive inks, magnetic coatings and
membrane filtration devices. For more information,
visit www.qsinano.com or contact Joe Romano, Partner,
HighGround, Inc. at 781-279-1320 x 208 or jromano@highgroundinc.com
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