MIT's new alloy has chrome’s shine but not its toxins

It has the optical luster of chrome, and it can make everything from hubcaps and truck bumpers to faucet fixtures and cell phone parts shine. But it’s more durable than chrome and environmentally safer, said Massachusetts Institute of Technology associate professor of materials science and engineering Chris Schuh.

Schuh told the Cleantech Group about a discovery he and his collaborators have developed, a new nickel-tungsten alloy that uses benign chemicals in its industrial process and is cheaper to produce compared today’s standard, which is chrome. And the new technology is getting traction in a variety of industries.

In 2005, Schuh and fellow patent holder Alan Lund rounded up angel financing to take their idea to the proof of concept, launching Marlborough, Mass.-based Xtalic. Schuh is still the nanotechnology company’s chief scientific officer, while Lund serves as chief technology officer. Today, Xtalic has 20 employees.

Xtalic has exclusively licensed the core technology from MIT on a global level, as well as holding several additional patents that cover its own chemical formulations and applications.

Xtalic brought in $6 million in its first round of venture capital financing, and a $10 million Series B round in November. The second round was led by previous investors Matrix Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners, and included a consortium of smaller investors led by James Wolfensohn, former head of the World Bank. Wolfensohn has invested in companies including Better Place, which is building a network of charging stations for electric vehicles around the world (see Electric car charging startup raises $200M).

Xtalic’s funding has been used to transform its technology into a commercially viable product. Xtalic CEO Tom Clay said it's just starting to bring in revenue from customers, including specialty plater Techmetals of Dayton, Ohio., which has evaluated and is now purchasing the technology.

Shuh and his collaborators discovered they could manipulate the internal structure of the metal to produce a new alloy that had the hardness and corrosion resistance of chrome.

The inventors took a “new twist” on the classic process known as electroplating, Schuh said. The process—which uses electrical current to coat metal objects with chrome—involves running the current through a liquid bath of chromium ions, which deposits a thin layer of chrome on the surface of the object in the bath.

“The real benefit is that with our process we have control over the structure of the metal,” Schuh said. “We have that control even as the coating is growing.” 

See Chris Schuh with his alternative to chrome »

Their development offers control of the structure down to the atomic level, allowing metals to be created where they can arbitrarily dial in the properties they want, and in turn delivering a new metal that Clay said is ready for all sorts of applications. The technology has potential uses in electrical components, power generation, steel, machine components, mining equipment, agricultural, paper manufacturing and textiles, Clay said. Chrome is also used in everything from faucet handles to pimping out cars.

Clay said Xtalic’s nickel-tungsten alloys outperform hard chrome by more than a factor of 10 in terms of wear, and the corrosion life is more than five times longer.

“We can offer really dramatic enhancements, and in some cases we offer two times the life extension,” Clay said.

With chrome, the chemicals used in the bath are hazardous and costly to ship, Schuh said. The ions, known as hexavalent chromium, are carcinogenic if inhaled, and contact with the liquid can be deadly. Attention was first drawn to the problems with chromium in the 1970s, and people have actively been trying to find a substitute for its plating process, which is a more than $30 billion-a-year industry, Schuh said.

Hexavalent chromium can pollute groundwater, Schuh added, which was addressed in the 2000 film "Erin Brockovich," starring Julia Roberts, in which a California power company is accused of polluting the city’s water supply.

In contrast, Schuh said his alloys uses benign chemicals, and the bath they are in runs perpetually so there’s rarely an event where they need to be disposed. The electroplating process is also more efficient than that used with chrome because multiple layers can be applied in one step. Schuh said this could save money for manufacturers.

Toronto, Canada-based Integran Technologies is also developing an alternative for hard chrome plating (see Canada funds 16 cleantech startups in one day).

Non-toxic metals also have applications in battery technology. In 2008, San Diego, Calif.-based PowerGenix came out with non-toxic, nickel-zinc rechargeable batteries that met the European Union's requirements for the Reduction of Hazardous Substances (see PowerGenix non-toxic batteries coming to market)

Schuh’s basic science has been funded with about $500,000 from the U.S. Army Research Office. Schuh said the office funds research that has U.S. Department of Defense and Army interest.

“The Army uses a lot of metals, and they have need to eke out every last bit of performance metal can deliver,” Schuh said.

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