Taiwan's chemical firms debut nanotechnology plastic materials

Taipei, Dec. 21, 2004 (CENS)--Some of Taiwan's chemical firms have successfully developed nanotechnology-based plastic materials, according to the Union Chemical Laboratories (UCL) under the semi-official Industrial Technology Research Institute.

UCL, with the cooperation of the Taiwan Chemical Technology Industry Association, unveiled the news at a forum focusing on Taiwan's chemical and nanotechnology development. In conjunction with the forum, there was a product presentation to elaborate the achievements of domestic chemical firms in upgrading products.

At the product presentation, Formosa Chemical & Fibre Corp. (FCFC), a subsidiary of the plastic giant Formosa Plastics Group, and Jan-Yuan Nano Tech Co. debuted their advanced technologies in developing nonotechnology-based chemical products.

Over the past several years, FCFC, a manufacturer concentrating on upper- and medium-stream textile products, has expanded business scope to include plastic materials. With the successful development of anti-bacterial acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polypropylene (PP), FCFC has become one o f the world's few manufacturers that have adopted nanotechnology in developing plastic chips.

FCFC said it uses nanotechnology-based anti-bacterial substances in the manufacturing process of plastic chips to enhance the anti-bacterial nature of its plastic chips.

An FCFC researcher noted ABS is mainly used in the external cases of home appliances and information-technology products. The most popular nanotechnology-based toilet seating cover is also made of ABS.

Jan-Yuan said it has successfully developed nano gold super-saving cylinder coating additives which are suitable for gasoline engines. After making stringent testing by the technical service center of the Mingchi Institute of Technology, the nano gold super-saving cylinder coating additives can save gasoline consumption by 15.33% while strengthening horsepower by 9.46%. The testing results have raised the attention of the ITRI. Jan-Yuan president Lin Yung-sheng said he has briefed the newly developed additives to the ITRI for four times over the past few months.

At present, a few domestic chemical firms are capable of producing nano-class gold because of high technology threshold to cross. In addition to Jan-Yuan's nano gold super-saving cylinder coating additives, the ITRI boasted it has successfully developed nano-class masks which are mainly used by fire brigade.