In early July, WACKER bestowed its third Alexander Wacker Innovation Award. This year’s prize winners were Dr. Volker Stanjek, Dr. Wolfram Schindler and Dr. Thomas Kammel for their pioneering work in organofunctional silanes and the development of silane-curing polymers.
The researchers discovered that by changing certain structural elements, they could accelerate the chemical reactivity of silanes by a factor of 100 to 1,000. Back in the 1960s, scientists discovered that substitution of certain structural elements leads to higher organofunctional-silane reactivity. This discovery, however, had been forgotten.
“The key innovative power of this proposal isn’t so much the observation of the alpha effect itself,” said WACKER CEO Dr. Rudolf Staudigl at the award ceremony. “It is the fact that a fundamental phenomenon has been discovered which is of great scientific and commercial interest.”
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From right: Dr. Rudolf Staudigl with this year’s winners – Dr. Wolfram Schindler, Dr. Volker Stanjek and Dr. Thomas Kammel (from right).
Highly reactive alpha-silanes enable the production of rapid-curing adhesives and sealants, isocyanate-free construction and installation foams, scratchproof coatings, abrasion-resistant composites and extremely low-tin silicone sealants. According to the Munich-based company’s estimates, the long-term market potential of alpha-silanes – marketed under the GENIOSIL®trademark since 2003 – could be in the hundreds of millions.
Named after the company’s founder, the €10,000 “Alexander Wacker Innovation Award” rotates between the categories of product innovation, process innovation and basic research. This year’s award was in basic research. The focus of next year’s Groupwide competition will be on product innovation.