WACKER Honors Researchers for Developing highly reactive Alpha-Silanes

Yesterday, Wacker Chemie AG honored Dr. Volker Stanjek, Dr. Wolfram Schindler and Dr. Thomas Kammel with this year’s “Alexander Wacker Innovation Award” 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. 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. This year’s €10,000 innovation award focused on basic research.
WACKER’s chemists studied the so called alpha effect – a phenomenon known for some time. Back in the 1960s, scientists discovered that substitution of certain structural elements leads to higher organofunctional-silane reactivity. This discovery, however, was slowly forgotten. “The key innovative power of this proposal is not so much observation of the alpha effect itself, but rather recognizing that a fundamental phenomenon has been discovered which is highly interesting for both scientific and business reasons,” stressed WACKER President & CEO Dr. Rudolf Staudigl during the award ceremony. 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.
In his speech, Staudigl emphasized the great importance of innovations for the company’s future profitability. The aim is not only to come up with innovations, but to develop these into market successes as quickly as possible. In this regard, WACKER’s record is outstanding. “At around 4% of sales, our R&D investments make us one of the sector’s leaders,” said Staudigl.