Oxford Advanced Surfaces - Use of Onto™ Highly Reactive Chemistry to facilitate the manufacture of products containing engineered plastics and polymers

Engineered plastics and polymers are becoming increasingly exploited in multiple markets for
use as product parts and are replacing traditional materials such as wood and metal because
they combine many advantageous properties such as formability, strength and light weight.
However, whilst having useful bulk properties, many of these materials have inherent surface
properties that lead to manufacturing and end use challenges, such as poor ability to adhere to
other materials.
Onto™ highly reactive chemistry provides a solution to these manufacturing problems by
allowing surface modification of a wide range of materials in various forms, resulting in new
functionality being imparted at the material surface. Whilst Onto™ is capable of reacting with
many types of materials, we believe that it has the greatest commercial potential for polymers
for which alternative technologies are less effective. We are choosing to concentrate on three
key applications of the technology, namely surface energy/wetting, adhesion promotion and
direct adhesion to a coating. All three contribute to solving surface interface problems for
which we are aware that problems exist in the market, for example interlayer delamination in
flexible electronic devices. However, the potential for these applications is vast because
engineered polymers are utilised in so many products.
A wide ranging market study must first be carried out to understand in which markets these
materials are used, and to understand where their use is limited mainly by their surface
properties. From this broad overview, it will then be necessary to focus on specific markets in
detail in order to identify the greatest opportunity for Onto™ to add value to products. The
technology could have a large impact socially and environmentally because it could facilitate
product innovation and improve existing product performance in fields such as renewable
energy and medical applications.