DuPont has won four 2023 R&D 100 Awards in the Mechanical/Materials category and received a Silver Medal in the Special Recognition Green Tech category. The awards, sponsored by R&D World Magazine, recognize the 100 most innovative technologies of the previous year. 

“We’re honored to be recognized for our teams' unwavering commitment to excellence, helping our customers address their most pressing sustainability challenges – from clean water to sustainable shelter to next-gen automotive,” said Alexa Dembek, DuPont chief technology & sustainability officer. “Receiving these awards exemplifies the commitment and dedication our teams display every day to deliver essential innovations to thrive.”

The company received an award for DuPont™ BETAMATE™ broad bake adhesives, which are designed for sustainable mass manufacturing of battery electric vehicles. DuPont BETAMATE broad bake adhesives enable sustainable manufacturing of next-generation electric vehicles (EVs) through a significant reduction of the e-coat oven temperature. This solution provides significant energy savings while durably bonding the high-mass underbody of EV body structures in the body shop. The adhesives provide excellent corrosion resistance, enhanced passenger safety, and deliver high elastic modulus and tensile strength, which maintains the quality of the bond over the vehicle’s projected lifetime. The adhesives have a shelf life of at least six months.

Also honored with a research and development award are: FilmTec™ Fortilife™ NF1000 nanofiltration element, a spiral-wound nanofiltration membrane that yields high water flux with exceptional high-pH durability while accomplishing challenging separations in high-pressure industrial wastewater applications; DuPont™ AmberTec™ UP4000Pd OH ion exchange resin, which is a strong base anion exchange resin doped with highly active palladium nanoparticles useful for removing hydrogen peroxide from the ultrapure water used for semiconductor manufacturing processes; and DuPont™ Styrofoam™ Brand Plazamate™ XR foam insulation, which reportedly has the highest thermal resistance per inch of any extruded polystyrene (XPS) roofing insulation, delivering superior thermal-insulating performance and moisture resistance, with a 30% higher R-value than traditional XPS roofing insulation. 

DuPont also received a Special Recognition Silver Medal in the Green Tech category for its DuPont AmberTec UP4000Pd OH ion exchange resin product. A critical component of the chip manufacturing process is the ultrapure water that is used in a range of process steps such as wafer cleaning — these process steps are highly sensitive to impurities in this process stream. Hydrogen peroxide present in the ultrapure water as a side product of UV treatment of organic impurities can cause problems such as corrosion of system components. 

Now in its 61st year, the R&D 100 Awards recognition identifies and celebrates the top technology products and services of the year. This year, the R&D Awards received entries from 15 different countries and regions and nominations were judged by 45 well-respected industry professionals from across the world.

To learn more, visit www.dupont.com, and www.rdworldonline.com.