OTHER TECHNOLOGIES OVERVIEW In addition to the main areas of our research activities, which include Delivery Systems, Membranes, Photonics, Sensors and Specialty Coatings, MMI scientists also often engage in various other programs of interest. On this website, we group such programs under the common descriptor “Other Technologies”. These are all based on our main platforms which include (a) denrimers (PAMAM and PAMAMOS), (b) a wide variety of compositionally different hyperbranched polymers (HBP) prepared by bimolecular non-linear polymerization (BMNLP), (c) polyhedral oligosilsesquioxanes (POSS), and often carbon nanotubes (CNT) and fullerenes.

These platforms are used either alone or in combinations with other molecular architectures, such as linear polymers, oligomers, etc., in various strategies common to nanotechnology, chemistry, materials and surface science. The goal is always the same: to satisfy an existing unmet need in potential civilian and/or defense application with a process that is economically sound and commercially viable.

The common denominator for these unique materials that comprise our basic research platforms are unique nano-sizes of their molecules, which range between 1 and 10 nm and lie between the ranges of classical organic chemistry and traditional polymer science. All these molecules are capable of serving as building blocks for controlled bottom-up synthesis of more complex nano-structures (ref to Figure in dendrimers) with organizational complexity controlled at the nano level and fundamentally new properties and functions. Many of our dendrimers are hyperbranched polymers are commercially available from Dendritech Inc., Midland, MI, the first and the largest producer of these unique materials in the world, while some POSS and other interesting materials are available from Oxazogen.