25 August, 2022
Accomplishing KAUST-SABIC project on Etchless Plating Solution
Matthieu Mulle, Saad Nauman, Arief Yudhanto, Xiaole Li, Ran Tao, Ruslan Melentiev, Lujain Fatta, Gilles Lubineau
Our two years long collaborative project with SABIC in developing a greener polymer grade for electroplating applications has come to its successful end. During this time, our team made a deep dive into polymer chemistry and metal/polymer adhesion, resulting in new polymer formula, which solves the ecological issue in the electroplating industry. With our new ABS polymer, the electroplaters no longer need to apply toxic chromium acid to ensure the coating adhesion, but a greener and cheaper acid solution. The research outputs of this project are converted into 2 US patents and 10 articles (3 reviews, 6 research papers, and 1 conference proceeding) in the top prestigious journals.
The project was started in 2020, and initially settled by Matthieu Mulle and Saad Nauman, then taken over by Arief Yudhanto and Xiaole Li, and since 2021 driven to the end by Ran Tao and Ruslan Melentiev, who got distinctive appreciation from the partnering SABIC team during the project closing meeting. This demonstrate how the team works for everyone, when everyone is working for the team.
It was that exact type of academic/industrial collaboration, that one from outside could ideally imagine: two teams with different expertise, experiments at both sides, monthly meetings, coauthoring articles, and filling IP which indeed proceeds to the business.