SABIC and CIMA Nanotech team up for first transparent conductive PC film

With smart materials being one of the fastest growing areas of materials technology, SABIC and Cima NanoTech announced their joint development of a plastics industry first: a transparent conductive polycarbonate film that has the potential to revolutionise the materials used in consumer electronics, household goods, automotive, architecture and healthcare. 

The new material, designed to provide “next generation” functionality, has the potential to further enhance performance, enable new innovative applications and open doors for new product designs, Ernesto Occhiello, SABIC Executive Vice President, Technology and Innovation, explained. This could translate into faster response touch screens for consumer electronics, transparent “no-line” anti-fogging capabilities for automotive windows, better EMI shielding effectiveness for electronics, and transparent WiFi/Bluetooth antennas for mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, laptops and all-in-one computers.

Aligned with SABIC’s focus to provide solutions that will solve industry challenges, SABIC engaged in a joint collaboration with Cima NanoTech in the latter half of 2013 to develop the promising new material, which will be available for customer trials later this year.

The collaboration, leveraging both Cima NanoTech’s proprietary SANTE nanoparticle technology and SABIC’s LEXAN film, a polycarbonate material, has resulted in the development of a new series of transparent conductive materials that are lightweight with excellent transparency, outstanding conductivity and high flexibility. Cima NanoTech worked with SABIC’s world-class team of scientists to jointly develop materials that not only meet the requirements of existing industries, but also stretches the possibilities for exciting opportunities by breaking boundaries faced with current materials.