CO2-based resin launched

Novomer Inc. (Ithaca, NY), which can use carbon dioxide, among other renewable chemicals to create chemicals, polymers, and their monomer forerunners, announced its first product: NB-180, a poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC) sacrificial binder. Sacrificial binders are used throughout manufacturing particularly within advanced ceramics, microelectronics, nanotechnology, metal brazing and fuel cells. Novomer says that in addition to coming from renewable materials, NB-180 offers performance advantages, including burning more cleanly, uniformly, and at lower temperatures than currently available products.

In addition, the amorphous, colorless thermoplastic polymer results in low ash residue, making NB-180 an applicable for the precise assembly of micro- and nano-scale devices. In a release, Fox Holt, product manager at Novomer, said, “As products become smaller and smaller, manufacturing processes become increasingly exact. NB-180 can help deliver the precision required in these critical operations.”

NB-180 decomposes completely in air by 250°C, which Novomer says is at least 50°C below many binders currently in use. Complete burnout occurs by 300°C in inert atmospheres such as nitrogen, argon, and hydrogen.

NB-180 uses Novomer’s patented catalyst technology, which enables the production of polymers and plastics from greenhouse gases like carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Resulting materials are 30-50% carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide by weight, depending on the formulation. NB-180 is more than 40% by weight carbon dioxide.

Novomer Ithaca, New York (www.novomer.com)