NANOMATERIALS
Nobel Prize winner introduces skin care line J. Fraser Stoddart is behind new firm that will sell high-priced antiaging cosmetics In 2016, J. Fraser Stoddart won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his part in designing a molecular machine. Now as chief technology officer and cofounder of nanotechnology firm PanaceaNano, he has introduced the “Noble” line of antiaging cosmetics, including a $524 formula described as an “anti-wrinkle repair” night cream. The firm says the cream contains Nobel Prize-winning “organic nano-cubes” loaded with ingredients that reverse skin damage and reduce the appearance of wrinkles. Other prize-winning chemists have founded companies, but Stoddart’s backing of the antiaging cosmetic line takes the promotion of a new company by an award-winning scientist to the next level. The nano-cubes are made of carbohydrate molecules known as cyclodextrins. The cubes, of various sizes and shapes, release ingredients such as vitamins and
peptides onto the skin “at predefined times with molecular precision,” according to the Noble skin care website. PanaceaNano cofounder Youssry Botros, former nanotechnology research director at Intel, contends that the metering technology makes the product line “far superior to comparable products in the market today.” However, the nanocubes aren’t molecular machines, for which Stoddart won his Nobel prize. While acknowledging the product line trades on his Nobel prize, Stoddart points out to C&EN that “we’re not spelling our product name, Noble, the way the Swedish Nobel Foundation does.” Ethicist Michael Kalichman has a different perspective. Use of the word Noble,
even though spelled differently than the prize, is “unseemly but not illegal,” he says. Kalichman, who is director of the Research Ethics Program at the University of California, San Diego, adds, “If his goal is to make money, this may work. But if his goal is to retain credibility and pursue other more laudable goals, maybe he should stay focused on those goals.” Botros says PanaceaNano is also developing nanotechnology materials for markets including hydrogen storage, flexible batteries, and molecular memory based on technology from Stoddart’s lab and licensed from Northwestern University. But PanaceaNano chose to make its first commercial product a line of cosmetics because of the high margins and the ease of market entry.—MARC REISCH
ENVIRONMENT
EU’s chlorine makers end mercury-based production
C R E D I T: PA N AC EA N A N O ( CR EA M) ; K EM O N E ( P LA N T )
Europe’s Dec. 11 ban brings 21 mercury cell production plants to a halt European Union regulations requiring companies to stop making chlorine via a process that involves mercury came into effect last week. Of the 21 mercury technology plants that were operating at the start of 2017, seven have closed and 14 have been converted—or are about to be converted—to the less environmentally harmful membrane technology. The seven closed plants had a combined capacity of 665,000 metric tons per year of chlorine, or 5.5% of Europe’s chlorine production capacity. The 14 plants being converted have a combined capacity of 1.4 million metric tons per year of chlorine. Six of the 21 mercury cell plants are located in Spain, with the rest spread across the bloc. In the U.S., where no equivalent regulation exists, only one plant still uses the toxic element.
EuroChlor, a trade association, estimates that since 2001 the conversion of mercury plants to cleaner technology will have cost the industry about $3.5 billion. In 2016 European chlorine producers released a total of 1.4 metric tons of mercury into the atmosphere. At the end of 2016 they were still using about 5,400 metric tons of mercury in the cells, which electrolyze sodium chloride into chlorine and sodium hydroxide. In one of the final closures, Hydrochem Italia shut down its mercury cell chlorine plant just last week with the loss of 30 jobs, according to the Italian newspaper La Stampa. The firm plans to convert its plant and reinstate staff when the facility reopens at the end of 2019. A major clean-up of mercury-based hazardous waste is now set to take place
Kem One began converting this chloralkali plant in Lavéra, France, in 2015. at the 21 sites. EU regulations allow for liquid mercury to be stored temporarily for up to five years with a possible extension of three years. Liquid mercury must be converted to mercury sulfide before its permanent disposal. “Issues such as the demolition of buildings and the treatment and follow-up of contaminated sites will continue to keep the chlor-alkali industry busy for several more years,” EuroChlor says.—ALEX
SCOTT DECEMBER 11/18, 2017 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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