Bringing Silicone to New Levels!

Martin Alm

Nanon A/S
Priorparken 878
Tel: +45 43483502
Email: MA@nanon.dk

Biography

Martin Alm joined Nanon A/S in early 2004 after he graduated as a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering at Aalborg University. In 2007 he received his Ph.D. degree in Natural Science at Roskilde University for the work “Impregnation and surface modification of polymers in liquid and supercritical carbon dioxide”.

Company Profile

Nanon A/S is a leading provider of surface modification and material manipulation solutions of “difficult” materials, in particular Silicone rubber and PTFE, for medical and automotive industries. Our solutions are based on three key technologies, Softplasma™, ColdCuring™ and Silicone Impregnation™. Nanon A/S is headquartered in Copenhagen and is part of the NKT Group. Nanon is fully owned by NKT Holding, listed on OMX, the Nordic Stock Exchange.

Abstract

The speech will include a brief introduction to the physical properties of carbon dioxide (CO2). The tunability of the physical properties of CO2 combined with the unique nature of silicone rubber result in a thermodynamic favorable situation where it is possible to alter the properties of the silicone rubber by impregnation of different substances. In many medical devices silicone rubber has found its use due to desirable properties such as chemical inertness and high flexibility. One application is as drug delivery devices. However, due to silicone rubbers hydrophobic nature the type of drugs that can be released are rather limited.

One way to overcome this is to change the chemistry of the silicone rubber. Nanon’s approach is to produce interpenetration polymer networks (IPNs) of silicone rubber and hydrogel material in supercritical CO2. The impregnated hydrogel material functions as a reservoir and transport facility inside the matrix. This method widens the range of drugs that can be released from silicone rubber to include hydrophilic drugs, such as silver ions, sulfonamides and antimicrobial peptides.