Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Easy to Apply, Tunable Structural Color: Color Without Pigments, Dyes, Metals, or PCBs
EPA Contract Number: 68HERC22C0031Title: Easy to Apply, Tunable Structural Color: Color Without Pigments, Dyes, Metals, or PCBs
Investigators: Ryan, Matthew
Small Business: Cypris Materials, Inc.
EPA Contact: Richards, April
Phase: I
Project Period: December 1, 2021 through May 31, 2022
Project Amount: $99,956
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I (2022) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) , SBIR - Toxic Chemicals
Description:
COLOR is a crucial component to nearly every consumer market and is the first feature that product design teams focus on when differentiating their brand and new product(s). Color is the primary reason consumers say they’ve purchased a certain product over another.1 Yet, the $65 B global colorant industry has not changed in design nor underlying technology in the last few decades and unfortunately the beauty of today’s color comes with an expensive environmental price tag. New methods to generate color are necessary to expand the global pallet and overhaul the highly pollutive methods of production. Cypris is giving the industry a much-needed make-over.
Structural color has been viewed by environmentalists as the holy grail to realize a safer alternative to organic dyes, inorganic pigments, and effect pigments.2 In famed Green Chemist Michael Braungart’s 2013 book The Upcycle he states, “When we were examining dyes […] we kept stumbling upon a problem: we admired many of the colors available, but they contained heavy metals. [It is a challenge] to find dyes that produce the gorgeous colors necessary for aesthetic appeal without adding a contaminant.” […] So who will develop a new set of polymers that are refractive, so the color will actually be in the reflected light and not in the dye?” Cypris’ core technology directly addresses Dr. Braungart’s call to action. Recognized by the Biomimicry institute, Cypris’ team creates polymers (or resins referred to as “binders”) that when formulated into a paint or ink and applied to any surface will self-organize into structured coatings during drying that specifically reflect light based on the average size of the polymers. This mechanism for creating color, called “structural color”, is similar to how the Cypris Morpho butterfly achieves the vivid blue color on its wing (Figure 1).
The key breakthrough that enables Cypris’ core technology is the ability to shape the molecular architecture of the binder while using commercially-available building blocks (called monomers) of plastics commonly found on grocery store shelves, ensuring that Cypris’ solution isn’t creating new un-tested or undesirable products. Cypris’ structural color binder removes the need for exogenous, toxic colorants, by using a binder that replaces and/or co-exists with commercial paint and ink binders. Once applied, Cypris’ coating reflects light to yield a vibrant colored coating. This approach reduces the need for a plethora of coating additives, advanced manufacturing equipment, and differentiated formulation strategies (i.e. libraries of chemicals) to achieve a full color spectrum, and based on customer need, can be designed with bioderived and recyclable materials.
With the support of Cypris’ EPA Phase I award Cypris is commercializing state-of- the-art colored coatings without colorants, using low impact carriers (no- or low- volatile organic compounds) and resins which are manufactured using low impact processes.
Figure 1. Picture of Cypris Morpho Butterfly on top of a panel coated with Cypris Materials structural color paint.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
During the EPA Phase I award period, our team engaged early customers who represent large market opportunities in the cosmetics, consumer electronics, printing (packaging) industry, luxury goods, and the automotive OEM space. We translated early prototypes with improved formulation and manufacturing improvements to customers and received rapid feedback to iterate the product accordingly. Feedback from our customers primarily focused on the observed material properties, aesthetics, and ease of drop-in application.
In the Phase I award, we focused on adapting and improving our formulations to incorporate no- or low- volatile organic compound (VOC) strategies using brush block copolymers produced from low impact manufacturing methods while maintaining the ideal coating durability and mechanical properties. We approached these challenges through three specific aims: (1) attain low VOC formulation with water-based and/or UV-curable formulations, (2) elimination of hazardous air pollutant solvents in the synthetic process, and (3) mapped the color space achieved by Cypris Materials’ structural color.
Conclusions:
Cypris leveraged EPA’s funding to identify and integrate ideal candidate materials which self-assemble into reflective coatings for target commercial applications while maintaining desirable target properties for a variety of end use applications. As we continue to bring Cypris’ technology to market, we will: 1) continue to reduce environmental footprint by further reducing volatile organic components of the formulation, 2) establish, validate, and mature our ability to perform color prediction, a key focus of all companies in the paints, inks, and coatings industries, and 3) continue to increase our use of bioderived feedstocks for our binder and reduce reliance on petrol- based derivatives.
By the end of our Phase I award (June 2022), in-house and customer on-site prototypes and pilot trials to date demonstrate the following capabilities of the technology:
- Formulations can use no- and low- volatile organic compound carriers to achieve highly aesthetic coatings that meet and exceed current capabilities (chroma/saturation) of current commercial color systems.
- Coatings can be deployed using a variety of applicators including, but not limited to: brushes, spray guns, screen printers, flexographic rollers, and piezo based digital printheads.
- Paints and inks can be formulated, improved, and tuned with traditional commercial additives to achieve market specification for mechanical and weathering durability.
- Cypris’ structural color can be deposited on a myriad of surfaces including, but not limited to: wood, plastics, synthetic and natural fabrics, glass, ceramics, corrugated packaging materials, and metals.
- Cypris’ coatings have shown the ability to withstand thermal cycling between -29°C and 75°C.3
- Cypris’ coatings can withstand >1000 hours of accelerated UV-A (340 nm, 0.89W/m2) light exposure at up to 70°C with ≤1.5 ∆E variance.4
- Cypris’ coatings have great adhesion to polar substrates, with less than 5% removal during standardized destructive testing.5
- Cypris’ coatings can be fortified to afford a 1000% improvement in durability including chemical resistance testing.6
- Coating components can be produced on kilogram scale by 3rd party manufactures using industrially scalable techniques.
References:
1 How Important is Color in Packaging?
2McDonough, William, and Michael Braungart. The Upcycle: beyond Sustainability, Designing for Abundance. North Point Press, a Division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013.
3 ASTM D6944 – 03 Standard Test Method for Resistance of Cured Coatings to Thermal Cycling
4 ASTM D7869-17 “Standard Practice for Xenon Arc Exposure Test with Enhanced Light and Water Exposure for Transportation Coatings.
5 ASTM D3359-09 Standard Test Methods for Measuring Adhesion by Tape Test
6 STM 300.003 Chemical Resistance Test
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.