Turkey based university is seeking industrial partnerships with textile, medical, sterilization, coating sectors for its a hybrid aqueous dispersions phase change material with photothermal properties

Polydopamine is one of the interesting polymers also found in the nature, its chemical structure makes it impossible to easily mix with or incorporate into other polymer matrices while maintaining its unique characteristics such as photothermal activity. There are other compositions and studies to obtain light to energy converting materials involving the use of various nanomaterials or polymeric components in different compositions, yet none of them presents a method and useful compositions with photothermal activities to obtain various forms of products presented in this invention. Photothermal materials can efficiently convert light-to-heat by non-emissive deactivation of harvested light resulting in significant local temperature elevations. The heat generated by the light-activation of photothermal materials can trigger a multitude of thermal processes which are easily controllable. The invention proposed by the Turkish based university presents a novel and feasible method to incorporate polydopamine into different polymer matrices through in-situpolymerization of dopamine in a given polymer dispersion and emulsion. While the invention is demonstrated with aqueous polyurethane dispersions, this approach can be extended to any type of polymer emulsions and dispersions that are of interest. Furthermore, the invention also proposes a novel composition containing PDA-PU(Polydiacetylenes-polyurethane) particles mixed with PCMs(phase change materials), which enables the fabrication of thermal comforting and buffering materials for various applications, which have not been reported in the prior art. The material can be utilized in a wide range of critical applications including: -Disrupting tumors by laser light -Light-activated sterilization of surfaces by killing microbes -Solar-driven water evaporation for desalination/purification -Light-activated controlled release of molecules -Design of light-activated shape-memory/self-healing materials and these applications can be used in medical, textile, material, coating and sterilization sectors. The university is seeking industrial partnerships with textile, medical, sterilization, coating sectors for its a hybrid aqueous dispersions phase change material with photothermal properties with an interest in customized applications. Role of partners: -Testing the performance of the material on their products or process, -Development of new applications. The University offers individual support to realize products and reliable solutions and prefers technical cooperation agreements and licensing agreements.