Fayetteville Tech Company Fabricates Nanocrystals

Nanomaterials & Nanofabrication Laboratories of Fayetteville is a textbook example of a successful world-class, high-tech company remaining in Northwest Arkansas, although other areas might be more attractive with funding and more angel investors.

NN Labs synthesizes pure and uniform sized nanocrystals for various uses in research and production for other universities and companies across the country and in Europe and Asia.

David Battaglia, manager of technology and business development, said the technology is based on research done at the University of Arkansas by Xiaogang Peng, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry. NN Labs has two U.S. patents and seven pending, as well as 10 foreign patents pending. Much of its technology is owned by the UA, but it has some exclusive licensing agreements, Battaglia said.

Since its beginning in 2001, the company has landed just under $4 million in Small Business Innovation Research funding. It now has two Phase I grants and two Phase II grants worth a total of $1.75 million.

Battagila said uniform sizes of nanocrystals are very important, especially in semiconductor testing, because the color of light emitted can vary greatly depending on the size of the crystal. He said one type of crystal that is 2.5 nanometers will absorb a light and emit green colored light, but if it is 3.5 nanometers, it will emit an orange light.

“If you want something that is 10 nanometers in size, it’ll be 10 nanometers in size,” Battaglia said.

Nanocrystals are not visible to the naked eye, so Battaglia used an example: “what a soccer ball is to the Earth, a nanocrystal is to a soccer ball.”

Nanocrystals could have health care and semiconductor applications, and even serve as “light bulbs” that last a thousand times longer than conventional bulbs.

NN Labs employs 10 people, many of whom are UA graduates.