In Lampa, 10 first-rate research laboratories are being built where solutions for health, disinfection, nanoelectronics, semiconductors, nutrition, nano-cosmetics and pharmacology, among others, will be developed.
This space will help Chile stop being only an exporter of raw materials, providing added value and innovation.
The pandemic has challenged the scientific community to seek new solutions to face this crisis and future challenges. The Chilean laboratory Aintech is one of the scientific endeavors that has responded quickly with its innovations to this call.
During the second half of 2021, it will inaugurate a new Nanotechnology Research Center, a space that will be used for the scientific investigation of phenomena observed in extremely small structures and systems.
“This will be the first private nanotechnology research and development center in Chile and the largest in Latin America. There will be 10 first-rate research laboratories located in the Lampa commune, with an area of 4,000 m2 where scientific research and large-scale production will coexist. The developments that arise here will be a contribution to the current and future needs of various industries, including the health sector, which today has seen the need to innovate due to the crisis caused by Covid-19 ”, explains Tomás Houdely, general manager of Aintech.
The center will be a meeting point (HUB) for different scientists involved in nanotechnology at the Latin American level, who will take a step beyond the academy to generate knowledge focused on understanding the processes of the nanometric scale and thus develop concrete solutions that are used by the community.
This space will help Chile stop being only an exporter of raw materials, providing added value to copper and other national materials, generating high-level innovations that are materialized in advanced products and processes.
“In this scientific HUB, for example, long-lasting antimicrobial materials, nanotechnology applied to nanoelectronics, superconductors, controlled release of active molecules for food and functional nutrition, nano-cosmetics and nanomedicine will be investigated. In addition, the research center will provide physicochemical and microbiological analysis services, toxicity and ecotoxicity evaluations ”, concludes Edison Salas Huenuleo, director of Aintech's nanotechnology laboratory.
National entrepreneurship
A team of Chileans two and a half years ago set out to research and create solutions focused on nanoscience. Within this context, its initial developments have been with copper, generating a line of research dedicated to antibacterial, fungicidal and antiviral properties for industry and mass consumption.
They are one of the few laboratories in the world that has managed to produce nanomaterials on a large scale. Its scientists have developed a method for the production of highly effective copper nanoparticles against microorganisms, of various sizes and characteristics, which, due to their purity and stability, can be incorporated into various products and processes.
This technology has been applied in two products that are currently available in the Chilean and international markets, which seek to eliminate bacterial, fungal and viral loads: Aircop and Decutec. Both have ISP certifications and laboratory tests carried out in Chile and Europe, which have shown that the copper nanoparticles incorporated in these products eliminate at least 99.99% of pathogens in the environment.
