TECHNICAL FAQ

Because nothing says “It’s all about doing highly precise chemistry” like talking about where you are placing covalent bonds.

The building blocks can be 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional.  Blocks can be stacked to produce even larger constructs.

A major advantage of the 2-dimensional blocks is they allow building one-atomic-layer thick membranes, which operate at the lowest energy possible. The one-atomic-layer thick water membranes provide filtration at the lowest energy possible,  enabling reducing the world’s total energy consumption while providing even better quality water at lower cost. Other 2D  membranes can provide low energy separations for medical, energy, industrial and environmental applications. But important as filtration and separations are, there are other capabilities needed to address other challenges. Three-dimensional constructs are scheduled for development for different types applications to meet those challenges.

So far, over 50 types of products have been identified that the Covalent technology can address.  The most important question is sequencing of development: what important challenges should be taken on next?  What challenge would you choose to address?

These membranes are NOT made of graphene. These membranes are made from the building blocks. The building blocks are organic molecules ranging in size from 125 to 150 atoms in 2D blocks. The 3D blocks are larger still. Graphene, graphite, carbon nanotubes and other graphene relatives are all made of carbon. Covalent building blocks are made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and other components if needed to achieve a specific type of performance. The building blocks snap together to form the membranes and other products. Graphene was a discovery; the building blocks are an invention. Unlike graphene, the building blocks are designed and built with atom-by-atom control. These means they can be finely tuned to produce just the desired performance, to be environmentally benign and biocompatible.

Yes. The building blocks are made through standard, fine pharmaceutical manufacturing techniques. High volume, high quality building block production is well established.  Membranes have been built in commercial sizes since 2002. Scaling up to full scale industrial membrane manufacturing is underway now with support from the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office and the US National Science Foundation.

The first products out will be water applications, scheduled to be in the field in 2020.

Classical pharmaceutical style organic chemistry is at the core. Anyone from the pharmaceutical industry will recognize the cycle of computational chemistry followed by organic chemistry in a cycle of improvement, followed by a move to materials science and then manufacturing.  But the other key to Covalent design methodology is this:

1. Identify a really big problem.
2. Really understand that problem.
3. Fix it.

Really understand the problem. We do not simplify the  problem…..we complexify it.  We not only understand the physics, the chemistry, the biology….we understand the economics, the manufacturing, the operations, the cultural impact, the cultural hurdles, political issues, psychological impact, medical impact, environmental issues and create designs to solve all those challenges at the atomic scale.  We start by understanding what the customer thinks they want….and then we go beyond that. People ask for too little. By building with atomic precision, you can give them much more, and give them a solution that is less expensive, less energy intensive, more environmental benign…and that solves the true problem they are facing. Not incremental improvements, but true solutions.

Many of the world’s most pressing problems can be solved or greatly helped by precision at the atomic scale.  Separating oxygen from carbon dioxide is a problem of precision at the molecular scale.  Obviously, medical problems or reducing the demands of most energy-intensive activities are direct candidates where a straight connection can be drawn between atomic precision and desirable or undesirable outcomes. Reducing the energy needed to drive an industrial separation process is a problem of precision at the molecular scale. The impacts of the energy saved, the pollution removed, or the medical problem alleviated spread out from there, affecting health, prosperity and the environment.

Building with exactly the right atom in exactly the right place lets you capture the lightning in a bottle: create a powerful and precise solution that really solves a problem.

 “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. ’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” – Mark Twain

People who do the designing, building and crafting – physicists, chemists, material scientists, biologists – care deeply about precision. People who use the products care about the results that come from precision. If you can solve a medical problem that is destroying lives…if you can deliver a better and purer product ….if you can save industry massive energy costs… if you can provide pure water at low cost….if you can reduce pollution….then precision is paying off by giving people the things they care about.

Moving from big and crude to small and precise is like going from the vacuum tube-driven mainframe computers of the 1950s to the chips that drive our smartphones. Things that were big, expensive, energy-intensive become much more powerful as well as smaller, cheaper and less costly. Chips are not yet atomically precise, but the journey so far provides perspective on the journey to small and precise.

As with water technologies, many areas of industry and medicine are still working on a scale that is large and crude. This lack of precision has many consequences, including high cost, high energy use, and often pollution. For water, it is critical to increase purity, decrease energy use and costs so water can be pure, abundant and low cost so people and planet can prosper.  The Covalent filtration cartridge is essentially an entire water treatment plant in a box. We are about to see the same journey for costs and capabilities in the field of water that computation traveled from the 1950s to today. By applying precision at the molecular scale, we should expect to see the same order of magnitude benefits in other important areas.

One example of lack of precision is pollution: very small things that have been created by accident and distributed into the environment by accident. Precise control over materials would eliminate pollution.

To work directly developing Covalent technology or to work with companies who are deploying Covalent technology, please see the Careers page. For companies wishing to incorporate Covalent technology, please see the Consortium/Collaboration page.

Covalent technology comes to market through partners who specialize in making and distributing the final product that you can hold in your hand.  This is similar to buying a computer or a phone that contains a chip from Intel or Motorola. Look for the Covalent technology inside!