AqFresh™
Advanced Pollutant Capture
Introduction
AqFresh™ is a revolutionary new pollutant capture & scavenging technology that can be incorporated into filters, as well as extruded into fibres, compounded into coatings, and formulated into finishing treatments for textiles & nonwovens. The offgassing of VOCs from these latter materials is a growing concern especially in the automotive industry.
AqFresh™ removes pollutants such as BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes), formaldehyde, SO2 and NO2.
A unique patented technology
This patented technology consists of cucurbiturils – barrel-shaped molecules that powerfully capture VOCs & pollutants and scavenge unwanted odours to eliminate them. They act rapidly and keep on working for lasting indoor air quality.
Cucurbiturils have a unique symmetrical structure, with a hollow, hydrophobic cavity and polar portals. AqFresh™ contains a mixture of cucurbit[n]urils (n =6, 7, 8) and each homologue has affinity for a variety of molecules. Thus, AqFresh™ has exceptional capability to bind a wide spectrum of molecules with different sizes and functional groups.
AqFresh™ has high chemical and thermal stability, can be incorporated into materials via the full range of standard industry processes, and delivers instant & long-lasting effectiveness.
The science explained in 3D video
Key pollutant capture benefits
• Proven in analytical testing such as VDA-270 and VDA-278 as well as SIFT-MS breakthrough analysis to significantly reduce VOCs and pollutants
• Effective on a wide range of pollutants (eg. VOCs, malodours and toxic pollutants like formaldehyde)
• Versatile & easy to formulate – AqFresh™ works in a wide range of environmental conditions – both wet and dry, in a wide range of temperature.
• Environmentally friendly, degradable under environmentally relevant conditions, awarded the Cradle-to-Cradle Material Health Certificate
KEY APPLICATIONS
Whilst this breakthrough new pollutant capture technology has a broad range of potential applications, one of the most important ones to address is the offgassing of VOCs in car interiors.
• Automotive Interiors – eg. coated textiles (eg. door trim, car seats), plastic films (eg. dashboards), and nonwovens (eg. headliners) all give off VOCs. AqFresh™ can be incorporated into all of these and also into the cabin air filters.
AqFresh™ technology has been proven by the National Physics Laboratory to capture their cocktail of typical indoor air pollutants including:
• Acids
• Aldehydes (Formaldehyde, Acetaldehyde, Acrolein and others)
• Amines (including Ammonia)
• BTEX (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, Xylene)
• Complex malodours
• Ketones and Alcohols (MEK, Ethanol and others)
• SO2 and NO2
• Thiols and Sulphides
Performance
AqFresh™ is proven to significantly reduce a wide range of pollutants.
It has demonstrated more capacity on a mass basis against NO2 and SO2 than activated carbon, proven by breakthrough analysis conducted by Element Materials Technology Ltd.
It reduces formaldehyde from 40% above WHO limits to 57% below.*
Eurofins validated that in just 6 hours AqFresh™ cleared 69% of the formaldehyde in a room.
*WHO Guidelines accepted formaldehyde levels (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK138711/)
