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Fall 2003

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Around the Pond

The lotus leaf, the moth's eye and cars that clean themselves

Leslie Wolfe '80G




	Seeing Mother Nature as their moth-er of invention: Byung H. Kim and Justin Piccirillo ’01. (photo by Ben Barnhart)

IF A LARGER, LESS EXPENSIVE, flat panel TV – one that would have a bright picture even in direct sunlight (at your tailgate party, perhaps?) – isn’t your cup of tea, then how about a self-cleaning car? While these products are not yet available, a process invented at UMass Amherst could soon bring them to market.

Lest you think that a car that cleans itself as you drive is a pipe dream, consider that the proprietary process that can create these autos has already won the support of some very astute investors. Just last April, Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Byung H. Kim and Justin Piccirillo ’01, cofounders of Lambda Coatings, went to New York City to compete in the Carrot Capital Business Plan Challenge. Pitching their plan before a panel of judges that included CEO’s and entrepreneurs, Kim and Piccirillo went head-to-head with 19 finalists representing teams from the likes of Harvard, Wharton, Columbia, Berkeley, Northwestern and Princeton – and came out winners. Their startup was granted up to $250,000 in venture capital.

Says Kim, “The technology is a means of producing micro- and nano-structures over a large surface. Mother Nature taught us that by having nano-structure surfaces you can create certain desired functionalities.” Two of the natural models cited by Kim and Piccirillo are the moth’s eye and the lotus plant.

The moth’s eye is actually constructed of millions of tiny eyes packed into a tight package, each little eye highly efficient in absorbing light, or in being non-reflective. These tiny eyes, measured in nanometers, are models for an embossed surface film that Lambda Coatings proposes to produce. (For more on nanotechnology in UMass Magazine, see “The Vast Area of Small,” Summer 2003.) One application – the low-hanging fruit, as Lambda sees it – is for LCD screens. Their claim is that their process would produce more efficient anti-reflective screens at a drastically reduced cost. The current cost of anti-glare coating for LCD screens is $30 per square foot, while Lambda asserts their product would cost only 50 cents for the same unit. While this would have a distinct impact on the cost of the LCD screen in a camcorder, the reduction in cost for larger LCD computer monitors and wide-screen LCD TV screens, which are being sold at the rate of increasing millions each year, would be enormous.

Another possible application of this technology is inspired by the lotus plant, which gives us a lesson in self-cleaning microstructures. With a surface roughness measured in nanometers, the frictionless lotus sheds particles of dirt in the faintest stirring of air. Lambda contends that their proprietary injection molding process could impart this surface roughness to automobile parts as they are being made, resulting in a self-cleaning car.

Both Kim and Piccirillo credit UMass Amherst with giving them the opportunity to develop this process and the tools to create a successful business plan. Kim points out that the process took many years to develop – longer than most private companies would allow for research – and that the idea grew and was refined over the years through the creativity and collaboration of many students. In particular, Kim cites the recent contributions of Donggang Yao (M.S. ’98, Ph.D. ’01) who is now an assistant professor at Oakland University in Minnesota. For his part, Piccirillo lauds the Entreclub, a UMass program aimed at hopeful entrepreneurs, for giving him the experience and business savvy necessary to head a startup and develop a prize-winning presentation.

While the future of Lambda Coatings is uncertain – several million dollars will be required to get the venture off the ground – one thing is certain: Practical applications for nanotechnology abound and many of them will derive from research conducted at UMass Amherst.

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