C&EN Online Success Story # 7 5
SILANE CHEMISTRY HOME Dow Corning launches 'solutions center' in Belgium for its global silanes business kind of balance to it," said Thierry Materne, OW CORNING HAS INAUGURATED global silane technology and business devela long-planned Surface & Interopment manager. face Solutions Center (SISC) at The new center is a means for Dow Corits European headquarters in ning to demonstrate its commitment to the Seneffe, Belgium, near Brussels. commercial silane markets. Until several The company launched the center earlier years ago, the molecules were produced this month with an opening day event solely for consumption within the company, designed to bring customers and suppliers Materne explained. And internal consumpup-to-date on developments in silane tion still slightly exceeds the business unit's technology. external sales, he added. The center is the latest addition to a Production of silanes takes place in building that was opened in 2001 as the Midland, Mich.; Barry, Wales; and Chiba, home of a silicone products business and technology center. Since then, the company Japan. The missing link in the company's market-support capabilities was in matehas also moved administrative offices, forrials science, said Eric Peeters, director of merly in a Brussels suburb, into the Seneffe building, which is about a 45-minute drive from the Belgian capital. T h e event actually started the afternoon before with training sessions on the technology of organofunctional silanes—silicon-based molecules that pair alkoxy groups with amino, epoxy, methacrylate, or other organic groups. Uses for organosilanes FULL HOUSE New technology center joins offices, include coupling agents, other labs at Dow Corning headquarters in Belgium. cross-linkers, and polymer building blocks. science and technology for Dow Coming's core products business. "That's why we deThe opening day itself featured "what's cided to establish SISC, for technological new in organosilane chemistry and applidevelopment and market development," he cations." It was headlined by Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, the 1991 Nobel Prize winner said. SISC consists of two closely interacting labs, one focusing on materials science in physics. Now an adviser to the president and the other on applications. The center of France's Institut Curie, de Gennes exhas a particular focus on the rubber and amined the topic of "Adhesion: Chemical plastics industries. Invention and Physics Models." It also offers the company enhanced caThe primary focus of the day, however, pabilities to tackle new challenges. Peeters was on applied technology That gave the cited two examples. Development of siprogram a somewhat different feel from lanes that will not release volatile organic the research-oriented symposium that rival compounds during curing, he said, is one silicon chemistry specialist Wacker sponproject "we are working on for many cussors every two years at various European tomers." The other project is developing siuniversities. lane coupling agents that make biomaterials For Dow Corning staffers, one important such as wood or sugarcane compatible with feature of the day was that it drew more polymers. One use would be incorporating than 200 participants from some 60 differcellulosic fibers into polymers as fillers or ent chemical companies and universities in reinforcing agents. the European Union, Russia, the U.S., and "We believe there is a huge potential in Australia. "It's a conference to promote inunderstanding the intricacies of the chemisteraction between marketing and technical try," Peeters enthused.—PATRICIA SHORT people. We have tried to bring a different
D Challenge: Diane wants t o enhance her classroom lectures by giving students examples of practical business applications of current scientific findings. Solution: www.cen-c irg, A tool that helps Diane locate articles that inform her students about realworld applications of t h e scientific principles they are learning about.
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