About Us
A Paradigm Shift
Today, materials science is poised to undergo a paradigm shift as historic and sweeping as the advent of synthetic polymers. In the coming years, many conventional materials will be radically improved or replaced altogether by hierarchical materials with new and alien capabilities. For decades, scientists have focused on the synthesis and study of nanomaterials, but in the coming years the focus will turn to more sophisticated three-dimensional assemblies constructed from nanoscopic building blocks. These hierarchically-organized systems are the key to fabricating larger objects that express the extraordinary properties heretofore reserved to nanoscopic structures. At Dickinson Corporation, we are pioneering the design of these new hierarchical materials and the processes for manufacturing them at industrial scale.
What We Do
Dickinson designs and fabricates materials that are architected at extremely small scales to realize novel properties and functionality. Our scientists employ proprietary technologies to direct the assembly and covalent joining of ultrafine nanostructures into much larger, hierarchically-organized materials, bridging the gap from nano to macro and the gap from low-dimensionality to three-dimensionality. The result is not one new material, but a whole library of new hierarchical materials. Although our hierarchical materials are all constructed using a similar approach, slight architectural adjustments can be used to impart radically divergent material profiles. This versatility is possible due to the precise, multiscale design control that Dickinson exercises during synthesis, allowing the company to tailor each material to a specific application. The goal in every case is the same: using structure-property relationships to access new material capabilities that drive step changes in performance.
Commercialization
Dickinson is developing a new category of high-performance additives engineered to offer new electrical, thermal, and mechanical capabilities to polymer products such as adhesives, coatings, molded plastics, and composites. Formulators can utilize very low loadings of Dickinson's microscopic hierarchical structures to impart outsized performance improvements in their products. These microscopic structures, while built from nanomaterials, eliminate the numerous problems that attend the use of nanomaterials as additives, such as poor dispersibility, viscosity build-up, toxicity concerns, and undesired pigmentation effects.
Beyond these additives, Dickinson is developing manufacturing technologies for fabricating macrosopic articles from our hierarchical materials. The company's initial work in this direction is directed toward a family of simple articles (e.g. cables, sheets, blocks) having dramatically augmented performance envelopes compared to currently available materials. In particular, Dickinson will prioritize bringing new material capabilities to impact-oriented applications that address the growing imbalances in humanity's built and natural environments.