Advanced Diamond Technologies

www.thindiamond.com 
Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc.
429 B Weber Road #286, Romeoville, IL  60446. USA 
Phone: 815-293-0900

By BOB OKON found at suburbanchicagonews.com April 15, 2007

ROMEOVILLE -- Advanced Diamond Technologies Inc. is in the business of making diamond. Not diamonds, said company President Neil Kane, who emphasized the difference between the singular and the plural.

"Don't be fooled," Kane said. "We're not starting with pieces of diamond and crushing them up."

But the Romeoville company actually is creating diamond out of methane to formulate coatings for electronic components, pump seals and other uses.

Located in an industrial park across Illinois 53 from Romeoville Village Hall, Advanced Diamond Technologies has gained some prestigious recognition in three-plus years of existence.

The company was named a 2007 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Form and was a runner-up in the Wall Street Journal's Technology Innovation Award.

What Advanced Diamond Technologies does is make diamond out of methane to create films that are useful because of the material's hardness, conductivity and inertness.

The company's processes were on display last week during a visit by U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. One poster describing the production process was titled "How to Convert $1 of Methane to $10,000 (or More) of Diamond."

"We are literally rearranging the carbon atoms from methane and making diamond," Kane said.

Don't be fooled either into thinking that the Advanced Diamond Technologies is creating valuable gems in its plain production facility.

U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Clarendon Hills, quipped after a tour with Bodman that she asked to see the diamond rings, but there weren't any.

Instead, Advanced Diamond Technologies is pioneering the development of diamond films for industrial, electronic, mechanical and medical uses.

The company currently is working with John Crane Inc., a Morton Grove-based supplier of sealing systems, on new pump seals that are coated with diamond film to reduce energy consumption and save money.

"Diamond is a low-friction material," Kane explained.

Advanced Diamond Technologies last year received a $1.4 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency of the U.S. Government to develop next-generation broadband communication devices.

The company employs 12 workers. Until January, it operated primarily out of Argonne National Laboratory near Lemont, transferring technology developed by two of the lab's scientists, John Carlisle and Orlando Auciello, who along with Kane also are owners of the company.