A new form of plastic developed in Oxford has received a £500,000 vote of confidence from investors.

Dr Mark Moloney and Dr Jon-Paul Griffiths, of Oxford University's chemistry department, have set up a company called ChemOxica to develop their invention of 'sticky plastic', or adhesive polymer, as chemists call it.

The process could provide better laptop computer screens, smaller SIM cards for mobile phones or an anti-bacterial surface for hospital worktops.

Dr Moloney said the money would pay for a management team to develop the business.

He added: "To begin with, we will develop the technology for two applications, polymer laminates for computer laptop screens and circuit boards for things like mobile phones.

"At the moment, there's not good adhesion between the layers of the laminate and they tend to degrade. We can improve that by changing the way one polymer bonds to another."

ChemOxica is the 10th spin-off company created under Oxford University's deal with the venture capitalists IP Group, which provided £20m towards the new £60m chemistry research laboratory in 2000. Since then, the IP Group has provided commercial and financial advice to chemistry spin-off companies in return for shares in the businesses.

The university's technology transfer company, Isis Innovation, has also secured a lucrative deal with US-based Industrial Biotechnology Corporation.

The agreement allows IBC to exploit the chemistry department's designer enzyme technology, developed by Dr Luet Wong, which enables cheap materials to be converted biologically into more than 15,000 different expensive chemicals, often in a single step.

The technology is also environmentally-friendly, decreasing or eliminating toxic byproducts and emissions. Products include alcohols, aldehydes, ketones and carboxylic acids.

IBC can now sell chemicals for the flavours and fragrances industries, as well as bio-fuels, pharmaceuticals, agricultural and bio-pesticides.

Andy Badolato, of IBC, said: "We now have a core of intellectual property and patents that can be applied to successfully develop and commercialise biologically derived compounds."