Already known for its toughness, sometimes steel must be made even tougher. When used for specific applications in extreme environments — such as in chemical processing, marine exposure or at high temperatures — even the highest-quality steel needs additional fortification to be resilient enough for the task at hand. To augment steel adequately for demanding applications like these, materials science must align perfectly with manufacturability, at what one might call a crossroads of innovation.
Innovation Crossroads, a Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship program at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, partners entrepreneurs with likeminded researchers and has played a key part in the development of startup Applied 2D Materials (A2D), which is using hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) — a synthetic, layered ceramic material — to create a resistant coating for steel and other metals. Chemically inert and stable at extreme temperatures, hBN also works well as a dry lubricant, polymer filler or electronics substrate, but A2D is focused on its application as a coating. Thousands of atoms thick, A2D’s coating is effectively “grown” directly on metals for corrosion resistance.
The core technology was invented and developed at ORNL, documented in a 2024 cover-featured publication by Ivan Vlassiouk, senior R&D staff member of ORNL’s Functional Hybrid Nanomaterials Group and colleagues (Advanced Materials Interfaces). The patented result is now being licensed by A2D for commercial scale-up and deployment. Innovation Crossroads helps emerging technologies like hBN transition from the lab into the commercial marketplace, upholding ORNL’s mission to benefit the American people and the nation’s economy by harnessing the power of science and technology.
“We are depositing boron nitride coatings onto steel and stainless-steel components,” said Alec Readel, A2D founder and CEO. “This technology works using a process called chemical vapor deposition, where we introduce boron and nitrogen chemical vapors, which deposit onto the steel or stainless-steel substrate, forming hBN. The hBN coating improves the steel or stainless-steel’s resistance to high temperatures and chemical corrosion, while giving the components a smooth, low-friction surface finish.”
Increasing steel’s performance, endurance and efficiency, A2D’s hBN coating also reduces drag between parts, along with other lifespan-reducing problems for industrial metals, such as oxidation, corrosion and scaling. These benefits could significantly improve the long-term efficiency and effectiveness of products like heat exchangers and engines.
Readel’s early career in manufacturing was focused on design and fabrication, collaborating with scientists to scale up lab processes to accommodate commercial volumes. This experience alerted him to entrepreneurial concerns around investment and management, which he used in the next phase of his career in industrial automation.
Later, Readel’s entrepreneurship training intersected with the Innovation Crossroads program, where he still receives mentoring. Initially, Innovation Crossroads helped Readel connect with the Knoxville start-up community, where he acquired an array of useful knowledge concerning financial and business strategies, product development, long-term planning, funding mechanisms, staffing and even community outreach. Today, Alec is self-employed at A2D and dedicated to the commercialization of its industry-viable material applications.
“Unlike conventional ceramic and polymer coatings, hBN provides simultaneous chemical stability, thermal resistance, dielectric insulation and solid lubrication at a high temperature,” said Vlassiouk. “In a single, ultrathin material system, this is a highly attractive option for protecting steel in harsh or extreme environments.” Vlassiouk, principal investigator for the A2D project, works with Readel at ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS).
Being safe and effective isn’t always enough. New products derived from scientific breakthroughs must also be scalable and cost-effective — which often hinders the advancement of two-dimensional materials. Abundant source materials, such as solid boron and nitrogen gas, make hBN not only economically sound but also safer, scalable and suitable for large-scale deployment and high-throughput manufacturing. It’s also adaptable to manufacturing production lines and their large components.
“With its world-class expertise in materials science, extensive knowledge base and state-of-the-art instrumentation, ORNL is uniquely positioned to pursue this ambitious goal,” said Vlassiouk. “We’re developing an innovative solution to a thousand-year-old challenge — the protection of steel through a single, versatile coating capable of meeting the diverse and rigorous demands of various steel applications.”
Compatible with many commercial applications, from tooling and heat exchange to energy, industrial, defense and aerospace, hBN’s overall flexibility, both literally and figuratively, is an asset. Its low-friction, nonstick surface, coupled with its thermal, chemical and corrosion resistance, make hBN an excellent choice for outfitting complex parts, yet versatile enough to also work with stainless steels. Readel stressed the essential nature of A2D’s access to scientific resources at ORNL, to which the Innovation Crossroads program has opened doors.
“While developing our technology, our company is heavily reliant on expensive characterization and test equipment,” said Readel. “We’ve been able to use microscopy and instrumentation to help us understand failure mechanisms of our coating during early-stage development, allowing us to rapidly optimize our synthesis parameters to target specific areas where we need to improve. Also, Ivan has been instrumental in helping us scale the process developed at CNMS on a benchtop system to work in our company’s larger in-house system.” Together, Readel and Vlassiouk are poised to build A2D’s game-changing technology into an innovative industrial marketplace powerhouse.
Innovation Crossroads is supported by DOE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office, Building Technologies Office, and Office of Electricity, the DOE Office of Science Basic Energy Sciences program and the Tennessee Valley Authority. LEEP is managed by DOE’s Office of Technology Commercialization.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. — Chris Driver