...The comment from the president and co-founder of Hybrid Plastics came right at the end of
his welcoming speech at the ribbon-cutting for a new production facility in Hattiesburg.
...Joe Lichtenhan pointed out that when he was in graduate school in Seattle during the blooming
of Microsoft, he saw first-hand how that city’s identity went from a logging town and a place
where jets were built to a high-tech software hub.
...“I am convinced that this same transition can happen in Mississippi,” he said.
...His enthusiasm might well have been due to one of Hybrid Plastic’s products – POSS – which
has the particularly useful characteristic of resistance to degradation that’s 10-fold better than a
wire insulation material it could replace. And POSS is only produced in Hattiesburg.
...Hybrid Plastics, a spin-off of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base,
Calif., was launched in 1998 with a $2 million grant from the National Institute of Standards.
...The company, lured to Mississippi in part by the polymer research capabilities of the
University of Southern Mississippi, started its move to Hattiesburg beginning in 2003. It took up
residence at the Hattiesburg Forrest County Industrial Park.
...In October Hybrid cut the ribbon for the $2.3 million, 15,000 square-foot expansion of its
Advanced Nanotech Materials production facility. It will allow Hybrid Plastics to increase
production five-fold to nearly a ton of material a year to meet expected demand for a
nanotechnology material of high interest to a broad range of applications, including weapons
systems and aerospace.
...The building provides a clean manufacturing environment to supply high purity forms of POSS
Nanostructured Chemical products to the military and commercial users in the fields of
electronics, sensors, food packaging, and filtration.
...Hybrid is also in the process of building an additional $2.8 million expansion that will allow it to
manufacture up to 500 tons a year of a lower purity product that can be used in less sensitive
applications.
A hot field
...Hybrid Plastics is one of the success stories of one of the hottest fields of the 21st century –
nanotechnology. Nanoscience, which involves developing materials at the atomic and molecular
level, is expected to impact the production of just about every manmade object, according to the
National Science and Technology Council.
...Hybrid Plastics manufactures a product called POSS, or Polyhedral Oligomeric
Silsesquioxanes, a silicon-based molecule being used to enhance the durability of existing
products in high-tech applications, such as arterial stents, fiber optic light generators, radiation
shields and other aerospace applications.
...Hybrid Plastics’ Nanostructured Chemical Technology is foundational in nature and possesses
broad utility within the consumer products, aerospace, biological, pharmaceutical, agricultural,
transportation, and construction industries.
...It improves the strength, heat resistance, weight and many other desirable properties that have
made plastics the material of choice in a range of fields, including aerospace, microelectronics,
food packaging and medical devices.
...They represent an entirely new, recyclable polymer feedstock that marries the properties of
plastics and ceramics. Silicates and sand are the equivalent of crude oil for POSS materials.
POSS technology can be incorporated directly into existing formulations without modifying
manufacturing processes.
Aerospace applications
...For South Mississippi, which is part of a growing Gulf Coast aerospace corridor, POSS has
some particularly intriguing implications. The material is seen as a replacement for the polyimide
used to insulate wiring in spacecraft.
...Hybrid Plastics fabricated a drop-in POSS replacement for Kapton, used in many space
component. Kapton is subject to degradation because spacecraft surfaces in low Earth orbit
endure high atomic oxygen flux, bombardment by charged particles and thermal cycling along the
full spectrum of solar radiation, according to a May 2007 article in CompositeWorld.com.
...The Air Force Research Lab flew several POSS-based polymer samples on the International
Space Station for nearly four years, the article said. Tests of polymers containing POSS showed
they are radiation insensitive and provide at least a 10-fold improvement in the atomic oxygen
erosion rate over Kapton polymers.
...POSS nanomaterials can be used both as direct replacement for hydrocarbon-based materials
or as low-density performance additives in traditional plastics. They produce no odor or air
pollution. They are biocompatible, recyclable and non-flammable. – Tcp
January 2008
his welcoming speech at the ribbon-cutting for a new production facility in Hattiesburg.
...Joe Lichtenhan pointed out that when he was in graduate school in Seattle during the blooming
of Microsoft, he saw first-hand how that city’s identity went from a logging town and a place
where jets were built to a high-tech software hub.
...“I am convinced that this same transition can happen in Mississippi,” he said.
...His enthusiasm might well have been due to one of Hybrid Plastic’s products – POSS – which
has the particularly useful characteristic of resistance to degradation that’s 10-fold better than a
wire insulation material it could replace. And POSS is only produced in Hattiesburg.
...Hybrid Plastics, a spin-off of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base,
Calif., was launched in 1998 with a $2 million grant from the National Institute of Standards.
...The company, lured to Mississippi in part by the polymer research capabilities of the
University of Southern Mississippi, started its move to Hattiesburg beginning in 2003. It took up
residence at the Hattiesburg Forrest County Industrial Park.
...In October Hybrid cut the ribbon for the $2.3 million, 15,000 square-foot expansion of its
Advanced Nanotech Materials production facility. It will allow Hybrid Plastics to increase
production five-fold to nearly a ton of material a year to meet expected demand for a
nanotechnology material of high interest to a broad range of applications, including weapons
systems and aerospace.
...The building provides a clean manufacturing environment to supply high purity forms of POSS
Nanostructured Chemical products to the military and commercial users in the fields of
electronics, sensors, food packaging, and filtration.
...Hybrid is also in the process of building an additional $2.8 million expansion that will allow it to
manufacture up to 500 tons a year of a lower purity product that can be used in less sensitive
applications.
A hot field
...Hybrid Plastics is one of the success stories of one of the hottest fields of the 21st century –
nanotechnology. Nanoscience, which involves developing materials at the atomic and molecular
level, is expected to impact the production of just about every manmade object, according to the
National Science and Technology Council.
...Hybrid Plastics manufactures a product called POSS, or Polyhedral Oligomeric
Silsesquioxanes, a silicon-based molecule being used to enhance the durability of existing
products in high-tech applications, such as arterial stents, fiber optic light generators, radiation
shields and other aerospace applications.
...Hybrid Plastics’ Nanostructured Chemical Technology is foundational in nature and possesses
broad utility within the consumer products, aerospace, biological, pharmaceutical, agricultural,
transportation, and construction industries.
...It improves the strength, heat resistance, weight and many other desirable properties that have
made plastics the material of choice in a range of fields, including aerospace, microelectronics,
food packaging and medical devices.
...They represent an entirely new, recyclable polymer feedstock that marries the properties of
plastics and ceramics. Silicates and sand are the equivalent of crude oil for POSS materials.
POSS technology can be incorporated directly into existing formulations without modifying
manufacturing processes.
Aerospace applications
...For South Mississippi, which is part of a growing Gulf Coast aerospace corridor, POSS has
some particularly intriguing implications. The material is seen as a replacement for the polyimide
used to insulate wiring in spacecraft.
...Hybrid Plastics fabricated a drop-in POSS replacement for Kapton, used in many space
component. Kapton is subject to degradation because spacecraft surfaces in low Earth orbit
endure high atomic oxygen flux, bombardment by charged particles and thermal cycling along the
full spectrum of solar radiation, according to a May 2007 article in CompositeWorld.com.
...The Air Force Research Lab flew several POSS-based polymer samples on the International
Space Station for nearly four years, the article said. Tests of polymers containing POSS showed
they are radiation insensitive and provide at least a 10-fold improvement in the atomic oxygen
erosion rate over Kapton polymers.
...POSS nanomaterials can be used both as direct replacement for hydrocarbon-based materials
or as low-density performance additives in traditional plastics. They produce no odor or air
pollution. They are biocompatible, recyclable and non-flammable. – Tcp
January 2008
Advanced materials
Pondering the POSS abilities
Pondering the POSS abilities
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