New Non-stick Coating

[phatch]

It's a metallic alloy that's supposed to be the teflon killer. The article highlights are included below.

http://www.sltrib.com/06032002/business/business.htm


New Process Makes Teflon Stronger

BY VINCE HORIUCHI
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

University of Utah physics professor Orest Symko says he has found a way to make a better Teflon. Now he is waiting for the world to come slipping and sliding to his door.
More than 15 years ago, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland established a new kind of alloy that is slippery and does not get wet, yet is five to 10 times stronger than steel, but they had not found a way to apply it to everyday objects. Every time they tried, it cracked and came off.
Over the past seven years, Symko and a team of students have developed a process that can take the material, called a quasi-crystal, and coat a thin film of it on ordinary objects such as pots and pans, scalpels -- even clothes irons.
The film is so durable as a nonstick surface on cooking pots that metal forks or spoons could never scratch it or wear it out.
"It probably will wear out your fork," Symko said.
The professor's process was patented last September and the University of Utah is trying to license it to companies.

(snip)

It could be used on razor blades, car pistons, computer hard disks or to make frictionless gears for micro-electromechanical systems or nano-scale machines with tiny motors.
In 1984, the Maryland researchers discovered quasi-crystals by accident. A material with five-sided symmetry, it stunned scientists because it was a new class of material they never thought could exist. Though it is an alloy, it is called a crystal because, like a crystal, its makeup is ordered.

(snip)

Not only is it stronger than steel and slick, it also can withstand higher temperatures than Teflon, possibly as high as 800 degrees.
The downside is it is brittle when normally applied to objects. That is where Symko's process comes in.
They use a "sputtering" machine normally used to coat metals on objects, like to cover aluminum on hubcaps. But this time, the process uses a special heat treament and mixes an exact amount of each of the three metals as it coats the object. The layer can be just nanometers thick.
"You're depositing this material atom by atom," Symko said. "It's not a fast process, but it works."

(snip

"We've joked that we could lose money on it," he said. "If you buy a [pan coated with it], you don't have to buy it again."
vince@sltrib.com


Phil again. Sounds like good stuff.

Phil

[ShawtyCat]

Sounds interesting Phil.....

I was never fond of teflon and will have to test this stuff out.