Nano-technology company Dotz Nano Limited (ASX: DTZ) has established a subsidiary for the commercialisation of graphene quantum dots GQDs for use as anti-counterfeiting and brand protection mechanisms in the automotive solvent market.
DotzBlue Ltd, a 100% owned subsidiary, will look to commercialise Dotz Nano’s unique patent pending technology for tagging liquids in the automobile solvent market, focusing at first on the Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF)/ADBlue market.
Diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) is an aqueous urea solution made with 32.5% urea and 67.5% deionized water. It is standardised as AUS 32 (aqueous urea solution) in ISO 22241. DEF is used as a consumable in selective catalytic reduction (SCR) to lower Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) concentration in the diesel exhaust emissions from diesel engines.
Dotz Nano’s CEO Dr. Moti Gross, said that as countries worldwide adhere to the NOx 2010 Emission Standards regulated by the US EPA and the Euro 6/5 regulations adopted by the EU, more and more cases of non-certified and counterfeit DEF/ADBlue are occurring.
As DEF users get smarter, requesting to see certification documentation, non-certified DEF manufacturers resort to counterfeiting DEF products. Non-certified and counterfeited DEF products will be an increasing problem as regulations get tougher on fuel emissions. These counterfeited products can leave the legitimate DEF manufacturer exposed to expensive litigation in product liability lawsuits.
This new subsidiary DotzBlue Ltd will focus primarily on the commercialisation of our GQDs for use in the automobile solvent market,” Mr Gross said.
“Manufacturers worldwide are suffering from counterfeiting of their products. While not being able to do something directly to stop counterfeiters from counterfeiting their products, by utilising our GQDs in an anti-counterfeiting tagging capacity, manufacturers can lower the damage done to their revenues and more importantly, implement protection from counterfeit product liability litigation, where the counterfeit product causes the damage, and the bona-fide manufacture pays the price.
“This is a unique, profitable, mass application use of our GQDs and unique patent pending liquid technology which will be, my opinion, potentially one of the largest applications for our GQDs.
“We are evaluating our GQDs for use in DEF/ADBlue with several main players in the US, Europe, Asian and Australia/NZ markets and have established DotzBlue to implement direct commercialisation in this market.
“Future automobile solvent applications are being developed such as thermal lube oil reducers, leakage marking and more, which will also be commercialized by DotzBlue.”
