About Cerion Nanomaterials
We specialize in inorganic nanomaterials such as metal, metal oxide and ceramic-based nanoparticles primarily for industrial, life sciences and defense companies. See our materials page for more details.
These are not currently our specialty; however, we are continuously expanding our capabilities. Check back with us regularly or sign-up to receive regular news, updates and industry information from us.
We design custom candidate nanomaterials for each customer we work with and do not provide commercially available, off-the-shelf samples. Nanomaterials are not a one-size-fits-all solution, and all require some degree of customization in order to provide fit and performance based on the customer’s product requirements.
A recent article about us in Specialty Chemicals Magazine further discusses the need for customization when it comes to nanomaterials, click here to read more.
No, Cerion does not develop or sell nanomaterials for any specific industry, product or system. Cerion provides its customers with access to advanced expertise in the design, scale-up, and manufacturing of nanomaterials. Our customers are subject matter experts in their industry and product area, and seeking to leverage the unique properties of nanomaterials to create new, or enhance existing, products or systems. Find out more about our process.
Founded in 2007, Cerion’s core expertise is the design, scale-up and manufacturing of custom inorganic nanomaterials. Our history goes much farther back than that, however. Our founding team developed their proficiency during their tenure with Kodak, where they were global leaders in creating nanoparticles for photographic film emulsions. They boast an average of more than 20 years of experience in the research, development, scale-up, engineering and manufacturing of nanomaterials through various synthesis methods.
Our customers are typically middle market and large enterprises in the industrial, life sciences and defense markets seeking to leverage the unique properties of nanomaterials to create new, or enhance existing, products or systems. Find out more Our Story.
Nanomaterial Design
In our pursuit to be the leading provider to industry, we have accumulated over a decade of proprietary expertise and know-how in the areas of precipitation and thermal reduction techniques methods as well as high energy milling processes.
The purpose of these ongoing investments into synthetic routes underscores the fact that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach when it comes to creating nanomaterials. Each method has unique advantages and disadvantages that must be evaluated against the customer’s desired technical outcome, material design criteria and cost of using that method.
You can learn more about our materials and synthesis expertise here.
Our process includes a discovery phase where we collaborate to understand our customer’s product performance targets, desired nanomaterial technical specifications (particle size, solvent system, stabilizing chemistry, etc.) as well as long-term commercial needs (price and volume).
Our senior scientists will then identify a solution including a statement of work outlining our proposed path to a successful completion. A collaborative, iterative process typically follows – providing the customer with candidate materials which they evaluate for fitness of use and integration into their product. With commercialization as the goal, the candidate materials provided always have a scale-up plan in mind. Upon successful completion of the Nanoparticle Design program, the selected material can then be scaled-up to meet the customers near-term and long-term volume requirements.
No, we do not charge for consultation. During the initial consultation process, we work with a customer to understand their commercial and technical objectives, target materials of interest and their specifications – as well as any specific requirements they may have for integrating the nanomaterial into their product or system. Throughout this process we collaborate with the customer to educate them on potential approaches to meet their needs, as well as any advantages or risks of that approach.
We use information discovered during the consultation to inform our technical approach for the program, which also becomes the basis for any scope of work should the customer desire to engage Cerion.
Each Nanoparticle Design Services program is unique based on the customer’s specified material needs along with the complexity of their goals. We support efforts that are as short as a month or less, as well as, complex programs that run for a year or more.
Traditionally, we work with customers to quickly produce candidate nanomaterials, so that proof of concept performance and product integration can be obtained. This process involves creating a baseline material for testing by the customer, and then iterating as required for both product performance and integration.
Cerion wants you and your program to be successful – that is why we start each engagement with a free consultation. Our goal is to provide you with the technical, budget and timeline information you need to assist with your budgeting and planning – enabling you to make informed decisions.
Need more information? Speak to an Expert.
At the completion of each phase of a program, we consult with customers, discuss any possible improvements, and establish next steps. We recognize that priorities can change at any point during the process. We stress a flexible approach to ensure we are meeting your needs in the event the direction that your product development program shifts or is discontinued. At the conclusion of each planned phase and review, the customer can decide whether to move forward, adjust or discontinue future phases the program.
Scale-Up
Yes, as part of our ‘Design for Manufacturing’ program we routinely perform pro-forma cost analysis on a customer’s candidate materials. As modifications are made to a material, this analysis is updated. Our DFM program ensures that nanomaterials we design in the lab today, will transition tomorrow at the customer’s desired manufacturing volumes and price point.
Yes. Each nanomaterial we create is custom based on the customer’s technical, product integration and price point requirements. We do not sell this material to anyone other than the customer who we created it for. A hallmark of Cerion’s business is robust processes to efficiently and cost-effectively scale-up materials anywhere between 1,000 to 10,000 times their lab-scale counterparts.
The time required is based on a number of variables, but generally, scale up to the next logical production volume is measured in months. Oftentimes, we scale nanomaterials much faster than our customers can qualify them during their own product prototype or commercialization phases.
A more nuanced answer would be that the time required to scale-up a nanomaterial is a function of the nanomaterial type, its complexity, synthesis method employed, pre- or post-processing requirements and desired production scale.
Yes. Our research, development and engineering teams will work with you to determine the scalability of your process, provide an actionable path forward and provide qualification batches for your evaluation. We also routinely work with customers to solve technical, engineering and cost challenges they may encounter when attempting to scale-up an internally developed nanomaterial.
Manufacturing
Our manufacturing capacity today is over 150 metric tons of dry weight nanoparticles, with active planning underway to increase our capacity to greater than 500 metric tons to support existing customers over the next several years. Find out more about our manufacturing capability here.
We operate a manufacturing plant based on Six-Sigma and lean principles that easily adapts to manufacturing a broad range of our customer’s nanomaterials. Based on the flexible design of our platform manufacturing systems, bringing new production capacity on-line is often a straightforward process. If this requirement is important to your operation, it should be specified and scoped early during the collaboration for planning purposes.
We do not require supply agreements from our customers. However, it is strongly encouraged to ensure customers receive the lowest possible manufacturing price point and so the raw materials required to manufacture their product are on-hand – which ensures timely delivery.