“Polymeric materials have wide applications in manufacturing of plane and automobile parts. They suffer however from a major pitfall which is their relatively low impact strength,” says Majid Rezaei Abadchi, major researcher and director of the project ‘Nano-powder Development’ of the university. “To compensate for this pitfall, we developed elastomeric nanoparticles (powders); this nano-powder renders the polymeric material extremely light, in addition to make it very strong when added to polymeric material,” he adds.
“Elastomeric nanoparticles are 4 times lighter compared to aluminum, which makes them highly applicable in manufacture of automobile bumpers or turbine blades, as well as in manufacture of uPVC windows,” Rezaei Abadchi details. “The nanoparticle has no foreign version, and we used the most flexible material in its building which would improve strength. Another advantage is that applying nano-powder reduces the percent of the material of which the product is made. For example, when applied, nano-powder would replace 40 per cent of plastic material incorporated to the build of car bumpers with only 5 per cent of the powder,” he said.
On prices, Rezaei Abadchi said that elastomeric nanoparticles had similar prices with plastic material, while enjoying cheaper finished prices and better in-built quality.
The powder has been patented inside Iran. The project also recently won the acclaim of being ‘Best Select Idea’ in the 11th National Festival of Best Ideas, in addition to win the second honor as ‘Best Idea in Tehran Province.’
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