Industries from pharmaceuticals to coatings are benefitting from chemical nanotechnology originating from research at the University of Liverpool.

Chemical solutions are essential in many of the processes used to make pharmaceuticals, coatings, agrochemicals and other products. But many organic compounds that could be valuable ingredients are hydrophobic, which means that they do not dissolve easily. This rules them out for many commercial applications. Professor Andy Cooper and Dr Haifei Zhang in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Liverpool have changed all that. In research supported by EPSRC's Materials Programme, the Liverpool researchers devised a way to convert hydrophobic materials to a form which, when added to water, rapidly creates dispersions of 'nanoparticles' in a liquid.

"Our ultimate aim was to find ways to create porous nanoscale polymer particles capable of trapping substances and releasing them rapidly on demand," says Professor Cooper. "In an inspired moment, my post-doctoral researcher, Haifei Zhang, realised that it might be possible to achieve this much more simply, without having to design and build novel manufacturing equipment."

The team devised a new porous encapsulation technology and a way to use using solvents to trap and release hydrophilic and hydrophobic substances. The technology creates nanodispersions that contain small particles of material, typically 10 to 500 nanometres in size, scattered evenly throughout the liquid. The nanodispersion can behave like a solution, enabling the effective delivery and formulation of ingredients that are otherwise difficult to dissolve.

The university research led to collaboration with Unilever. In June 2005, Professors Rannard and Cooper were a part of a team that set up IOTA NanoSolutions Limited, along with Dr Alison Foster, Dr Dave Duncalf from Unilever. Professor Rannard is Chief Scientific Officer and Professor Cooper, who is also Director of the Centre for Materials Discovery, is a scientific consultant. The new company had financial backing from Unilever Ventures.

IOTA NanoSolutions, with laboratories within the MerseyBio Incubator, is rapidly adding to its armoury of molecules that its technology can handle. It now has successfully dispersed over 200 insoluble organic compounds without the need for chemical modification. It is adding more compounds to this list on a monthly basis. IOTA NanoSolutions has built up a valuable intellectual property portfolio, with more than 10 patents and more in the works.

The young company has already started to collect awards. In 2007 it picked up Northwest Regional Development Agency's first "Science and Technology Business of the Year" award at the Liverpool Daily Post's Regional Business Awards 2007: it followed that by wining the Merseyside Innovation Award. More recently, the company also received the Bionow award as "Northwest Biomedical Start Up of the Year 2007".

IOTA sees applications for its technology in a wide range of industries, including agrochemicals, biocides, cosmetics, flavours and fragrances, 'nutraceuticals' and pharmaceuticals. The company collaborates with a wide range of global partners in these sectors. IOTA reckons that, working with its partners, within three to six months it can develop new materials and take them through to stage where they have the potential for scale-up and commercialisation.

IOTA NanoSolutions Ltd:

Professor Andy Cooper, University of Liverpool,
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