The Hindu Business Line : `German cos keen on tie-ups for nanotech'

NANOTECHNOLOGY, the new chip on the technology block where big money and products are predicted to be up for grabs, has attracted large corporates like Henkel and Degussa in Germany.

With venture capital not easy to get like in the US, Germany is betting on start-ups and investments from big companies to boost the prospects of nanotechnology, according to Prof Horst Hahn, Executive Director of the Institute of Nanotechnology at Karlsruhe in Germany.

Nanotechnology is expected to unleash a range of new materials based very tiny products with versatile applications from ordinary consumer goods to automobiles and strategic devices.

Prof Hahn, who with four other University Professors founded the start-up SusTech in 2000 to develop nanomaterials, said that Henkel Corporation has been providing majority funding for five years.

The professors have pumped in own funds and the German Ministry of Science and Technology is also offering support, he told Business Line.

The technology-driven venture has grown into 30 scientists and is developing new products and technologies using nanoprocessing, said Prof Hahn, who is currently in India as part of a scientific delegation from Germany, exploring avenues for increased co-operation with India.

Degussa Corporation has a collaborative project with German Universities.

It has built a large reactor that can manufacture nanomaterials on a pilot scale.

Given the increasing interest in nanotechnology, German institutes are keen to forge tie-ups with India to accelerate developments, Prof Hahn said.

He is holding discussions with the IITs at Kanpur and Chennai, the IISc, Bangalore, the University of Hyderabad and the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI) in Hyderabad for possible collaborations.

The University of Hyderabad is in the process of establishing a separate Centre for Nanotechnology and support from the German Government is at an advanced stage of discussions.

The ARCI, which has strengths in new materials and related technologies, is also setting up a big facility to foray into nanomaterials, said Dr G. Sundararajan (Director).

The German Research Foundation (DRF), which supports all scientific research funding, is actively pursuing an Indo-German collaborative project on nanotechnology, said Dr Ludwig Winnacker, President.