Nano-Cars Are Coming,
Along With Regulation

The auto industry is preparing to electrify the automobile, the biggest change in a century. And it’s using cutting-edge materials to do it — including nanotechnology, the science of working with very, very small materials that take on new super-properties.

Using nanotech, auto manufacturers are looking to roll out tires that last longer, electric car batteries with more range, and cars that pollute less.

Cars have had four wheels, an internal combustion engine and an exhaust pipe for more than 100 years, and change tends to be incremental and slow. The changes to automobiles were mostly cosmetic from the end of World War II until the 1970s, when the big news was fuel injection and catalytic converters.

So it’s not surprising that when people think of tech innovation, it’s Steve Jobs’ face they see — not the mug of Ed Whitacre of General Motors. That’s slowly changing.

As the auto industry begins to embrace the benefits of nanoscale engineering, it is also facing increased scrutiny from European and U.S. governments that may finally be ready to regulate. Some say it’s too late — nanotech is already in thousands of widely available consumer products, and the genie isn’t likely to go back into the bottle. Regulators say they’re working to understand a complex subject.

“There will be some new studies coming out that could tend to increase people’s concern about nanotech,” said Jim Hurd, director of the Green Science Exchange. ​“But the main thing is that nobody has been able to come up with intelligently designed commercial regulation that protects consumers. One problem is that nanotechnology is not well understood. We’ve had senators ask to see the effects of nanotech, and we’ve had to say, ​‘No, no, you can’t see it; a nanoparticle is a billionth of a meter.’ They tend to struggle with understanding it.”

Nanotech is invading the auto world on many fronts at once. Battery company A123, which went public last year and was briefly the stock market’s darling, supplies both Fisker Automotive for its high-tech Karma plug-in hybrid and Better Place (which is pioneering switchable EV battery packs). A123, using licensed technology from MIT, changes the lattice structure of iron phosphate atoms to improve the conductivity of the company’s relatively inexpensive iron phosphate cathode, enabling more charge cycles.

According to Wards Auto, a German company called Lanxess is using nano particles of polymerized styrene and butadiene to produce a strong synthetic rubber for tires with improved road grip, better rolling resistance and longer-lasting treads. A New Jersey company, InMat, is also working on tires, and has developed a nano coating of clay and plastics that also increases life expectancy.

PPG Industries, a major auto paint supplier, has used nano engineering to develop scratch-resistant CeramiClear. And MemPro Ceramics is working on a cheaper and better-performing ​“SootGrabber” catalytic converter that captures both smog emissions and tiny nano-sized particles. BMW is working with carbon nanotubes on catalytic solutions for diesel vehicles.

This is all going ahead as regulators on both sides of the Atlantic examine nanotechnology. The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission is studying a definition of what constitutes a nanoparticle, and is contemplating regulating them in sizes of one to 100 nanometers. (A nanometer is a billionth of a meter.)

The revision to the U.S. Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) proposed by U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg doesn’t explicitly propose regulating nanotechnology, but it does authorize the EPA to ​“evaluate and compel” data on chemicals with ​“special substance characteristics,” a category that would presumably include those with nanotech ingredients. The EPA may also require more disclosure about nanotech ingredients, in pesticides, for example. In 2008, the EPA clarified that carbon nanotubes are ​“new” substances and manufacturers have to submit Premanufacture Notices before introducing them into commerce.

“We’re dedicated to safe manufacture of our materials,” said John Finley, president of MemPro. ​“And we recognize that there is concern about how nanotech fits into the whole environmental issue.” MemPro’s catalytic converters could end up on lawn mowers as easily as cars — Finley points out that there are 14 million small gas engines made every year.

Hurd says that the Europeans ​“tend to over-regulate.” That’s one perspective: For the European Union, the Precautionary Principle reigns when talking about chemical safety. Products in Europe are supposed to prove they’ll do no harm before being introduced into commerce.

The threat of legislation and ​“over-regulation” is unlikely to slow the use of nanotech products on tomorrow’s automobiles. And with application for EV batteries and other green tech, the nano content is likely to increase as the industry electrifies.