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Contract Opportunity

TECHNOLOGY LICENSING OPPORTUNITY

Low Temperature 3D Printing Glass Microparticles and Macroscale Objects

A new technique for automated particle casting using additive manufacturing and photo-catalyzable sol-gel.

Opportunity: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), managed and operated by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), is offering the opportunity to enter into a license and/or collaborative research agreement to commercialize this low temperature 3D printing process. This technology transfer opportunity is part of a dedicated effort to convert government-funded research into job opportunities, businesses and ultimately an improved way of life for the American people.

Overview: Radioactive and non-radioactive particles form a backbone of numerous fields including (but not limited to) renewable energy, microscopy, nuclear medicine, and emergency response exercises and training. Techniques that enable controlled synthesis of radioactive particles are needed. To meet current and future needs, these techniques must be able to control the particle size, shape, composition, and be able to produce gram to kilogram quantities per day. For some applications, particle casting must also be able to be performed in a hands-off fashion to minimize radiological dosage. Techniques must also be robust enough to operate autonomously, and potentially operate within a radiological hot cell or glovebox environment. Many of these applications require extreme precision of particle composition control. Which has been a challenge for many existing approaches.

Description: Researchers at Idaho National Laboratory have developed a new technique for particle printing that combines novel 3D printing techniques and the state-of-the-art sol-gel techniques developed at INL. This combination provides a unique approach to solving the previously mentioned challenges with particle printing. Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is a advanced manufacturing technique that allows for printing in 3 dimensions. For this technique, the printing source material is a sol-gel solution developed at INL. The composition of the solution is carefully tuned to meet the needs of the specific end-user application. One of the key benefits of the sol-gel approach is that it is performed at low temperatures. Low temperature solution-based approaches enable both careful tuning and high precision of the final particle composition.It also provides a highly homogenous final product, which is critical for ensuring consistent final materials characteristics and performance.

Benefits:

• Immediate cost and radiation dose reductions during particle casting.


• The low-temperature operation enables careful tuning and high precision for the final particle composition.

Applications:

• Renewable Energy
  
  
  
  • Nano- to micron-scale particles with tunable, controllable composition, supporting catalytic precursors and other renewable energy applications
  
  
  
  


• Nuclear Medicine


• Emergency Response
  
  
  
  • Synthesizing radioactive particles for training nuclear and radiological emergency response teams.
  
  
  
  


• Microscopy
  
  
  
  • Including imaging, elemental analyses, and microscale mass spectrometry
  
  
  
  

Development Status: TRL 5, this technology is being validated at a laboratory scale.

IP Status: Provisional Patent Application No. 63/363,355,” Sol-Gel Particles Comprising Dopants, Additive Manufacturing Methods of Forming the Sol-Gel Particles, and Related Compositions and Systems,” BEA Docket No. BA-1344.

Additional Information

INL is seeking to license the above intellectual property to a company with a demonstrated ability to bring such inventions to the market. Exclusive rights in defined fields of use may be available. Added value is placed on relationships with small businesses, start-up companies, and general entrepreneurship opportunities.

Please visit Technology Deployment’s website at https://inl.gov/inl-initiatives/technology-deployment for more information on working with INL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process.

Companies interested in learning more about this licensing opportunity should contact Andrew Rankin at td@inl.gov.

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