ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — The ability to custom design, scale-up, and manufacture nanomaterials for unique applications has helped Cerion Nanomaterials build a thriving business in Rochester.
CEO Landon Mertz discussed the company’s expertise and growth Wednesday during our Greater Rochester Enterprise Why ROC conversation.
“Cerion is one of the largest companies here in the United States for the design, the scale-up, and the manufacturing of nanomaterials,” Mertz said. “What we do is we focus on making nanoparticles – traditionally metal, metal oxides, and ceramics – at sizes that are typically smaller than 1-20th the width of a strand of DNA. When these materials get very small in size they start to exhibit unique behaviors that you wouldn’t otherwise see in bulk form. So, as an example, an aluminum soda can is completely inert but if you made that into nanoparticles it’s highly explosive. And so what you’re doing with nanomaterials is you’re leveraging these kinds of bizarre and unique behaviors to create new performance and products. As a company ourselves, we don’t make products. What we do is provide advanced access and expertise to nanomaterials for companies that are working with nanomaterials and leveraging them to get a new competitive advantage performance out of their product. And so for the most part our customers tend to be very large multinational businesses and we cover companies across the United States and Europe.”