Longtime and extensively SBIR involved from the very earliest days of program operations, Materials and Electrochemical Research ("MER") Corporation, as of October 2015 now operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Achilles Technology Solutions LLC. The firm continues to be focused on high technology materials and electrochemical research and development with emphasis on advanced composites, powders, coatings, fullerenes/nanotubes and near net shape metals/alloys, as well as energy conversion systems that include Li-ion batteries, fuel cells, and gas storage. The firm has achieved a substantial record of collaborations with academic institutions and international organizations from the outset and continues in that vein. Soon after being formed, the firm entered into a joint venture with a foreign-owned international chemcial company for the development and commercialization of aluminum nitride ceramics. MER assumed management of this project. Within two years, the MER part of the venture was sold to Montedison, an Italian firm currently the leading competitor in world polypropylene markets through its wholly-owned, indirect subsidiary, HIMONT Incorporated. MER is also involved in a joint venture with Mitsubishi that develops fullerene/nanotubes.
