Replacement Touted For Chromium Primers

Aculon, a San Diego-based start-up firm, has developed a nanotech coating to replace toxic hexavalent chromium primers used on stainless steel, titanium, and aluminum. Based on the work of Princeton University chemistry professor Jeffrey Schwartz, the primer is composed of a self-assembled monolayer of phosphonates (SAMP). The key to replacing chromium, the firm says, is the covalent bond formed between the 2-nm-thick primer and the material to which it is applied. Use of the SAMP technology would allow manufacturers to comply with U.S. and European regulations that ban the use of heavy metals except where no feasible alternative exists. "We have now formulated that feasible alternative," Aculon CEO Edward Hughes says.