What is a Sol Gel?
Hydro vs. Organo Sols
Our Sol-Gels
Sol-Gel Applications
Finding the Proper Solution
Elements Incorporated into Sol-Gels

Sols are also known as colloids. Colloids occur naturally and, in fact, life is dependent upon them. A colloid is differentiated from a suspension by the characteristics of the particles relative to the media they are dispersed within. In a suspension, the particles are large enough that if the media is not stirred, eventually the particles will be overcome by gravity and will settle. In a colloid, the particles are small enough and exhibit an electrical charge so that they will stay dispersed in a uniform medium, occupying the same relative position indefinitely, or until something happens to cause them to agglomerate into larger particles and settle. Examples of causes of agglomeration include pH changes or the addition of other chemicals. Colloids can be either liquid or solid. If a colloid behaves like a liquid at normal temperature conditions, it is considered to be a sol. If, at normal conditions, it does not flow like a liquid, and exhibits the properties of a solid or semi-solid, it is considered to be a gel. Thus, the term sol-gel refers to colloids of both liquid and solid states. The dispersed phase of a colloid can be either organic, like starch, or inorganic, like a metal salt.
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Sols are characterized by the primary phase in which the small particles are found. Hydrosols have a water based primary phase and organosols are formed from a primary phase that is an organic solvent. The organosols are non-aqueous, that is, they do not require water in the primary phase. This is an important characteristic and allows the organosols to exhibit characteristics not necessarily associated with the hydrosols, including an expanded pH range over which they can exist. The proprietary sols we employ are organosols and can be admixed with late x and waterborne resins of many types to enhance and improve the properties of the base resin.
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The proprietary sol-gel technology we are marketing is unique and has the potential to serve applications that alkali based sol-gels will not. The technology is a sol-gel that consists of very small particles of metal salts dissolved in an organic solvent. The resulting sol is then delivered to the customer and combined with the desired customer substrate for application. The substrate can be a waterborne or latex based adhesive, protective coating, water based sealant or wood coating or other organic that will inherit unique properties due to the addition of the sol. The customer specifies the critical properties of the final mix and the sol is customized to meet these properties.
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Applications for this technology include UV stability, Conductivity,  Anti-static properties, corrosion protection, decorative metal coatings, specialized color and gloss controlled release of active ingredients (nutrient or biocide),  flame retardants and many other applications are envisioned.

Examples include:

• Antistatic Pressure Sensitive Adhesives, Tapes, and Carpet backing.
• Decorative latex paint for metals exhibiting improved corrosion inhibition
• Copper metal Deposition coating of iron
• Water based inks with improved UV Stability, Conductivity or Taggant Properties.
• Latex Wood coatings with excellent Tannin blocking properties

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In order to match the sol technology with applications, we need to identify problems where this technology might offer a solution. When a problem is identified where the sol technology might be applicable, it is important to make sure that we gather enough information from the client on the problem to be solved and on the system where the sol would find a use. The goal is to set up a test where we would make a sample amount of the sol/resin system, verify the properties of the resulting compound and provide the sample to the customer. We would then provide the sol and instructions to the customer for them to test in their system. They would test the sol and we would make adjustments, if necessary, to bring the sol formulation to an optimum for the client. In order to provide the best possible first shot at a sol formulation, the following questions would have to be answered by the client and the information transmitted to our proprietary formulator:

• What is the substrate target or what type of material are you trying to combine with the sol?
• What substrate property are you trying to enhance?
• What, if any, salt preferences are there for the sol-gel, either cation or anion?
• Are there any impurities that would cause a problem in the formulation?

These questions are listed in the section for each element we can incorporate into a Sol-Gel.
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Click on the Orange Elements to Get More Information.

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