In 2003, certain Nanomaterials personnel and technologies moved over by agreement to help set up Synkera - another now SBIR involved firm operating out of the old Nanomaterials space. Nanomaterials continued in the fuel cells space but appears now to have discontinued operations. Originally located in Arizona, NanoMaterials is in the development, manufacture and marketing of novel powders of advanced materials and high value-added devices and products derived from these nano-engineered powders. The technology is based on a continuous process that produces nanoscale powders from different types of precursor material by evaporating the material and quenching the vaporized phase in a converging-diverging expansion nozzle. The firm seeks to introduce change from novel and unusual properties of nano-engineered materials - those materials whose microstructural building blocks have been engineered to sub-250 nanometers, preferably sub-100 nanometer scale. In comparison with the commercially available state-of-the-art, nanomaterials are 10 to 100 fold smaller in microstructure. Nanomaterials Research LLC is one of the two companies formed from the March 2001 reorganization of Nanomaterials Research Corporation. The firm is focused on nano-engineered device development and manufacture, while NanoProducts Corporation focuses on the development and manufacture of nanoscale powders and emerging powder-based energy technology products. The company is housed in a state-of-the-art facility which include pilot scale manufacturing equipment, chemical processing capabilities, materials characterization equipment, and electronic testing platforms. The Nanomaterials' team is made up of individuals with diverse backgrounds, including materials science, chemical engineering, chemistry, and device physics. As an early start-up in the emerging field of nanotechnology, NRC first developed novel processes for manufacturing a wide range of nanopowders. Fabrication technologies were then developed to use and take advantage of the unique properties of the nanopowders. The nanopowders have been processed into many different electrical devices, ranging from capacitors to gas sensors.
