PIRE: Materials for Renewable Energy NaturE's Way (RENEW)

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This PIRE project will address the global challenge that many of the materials used in today's clean energy technologies come from unsustainable sources. While often thought of as only substitutes for liquid fossil fuels, biomass substances can serve as replacements for non-sustainable building blocks in many applications. PIRE: RENEW will use biological-based materials to create sustainable replacements and improve material performance in high value-added, high performance applications, beginning with solar and wind energy devices. Research will explore applications where intermolecular and interfacial interactions play a key role in self-assembly and aggregation, in building structural materials with exceptional properties, and in nanoscale optoelectronics. A wind track will investigate building blades from biobased nanocomposites, while a solar track will explore structure-property relationships of cellulose nanowhiskers, bacterial cellulose fibrils, and sophorolipid surfactants. The program will produce replacements that improve function, provide renewable sources, and mitigate environmental impact in production and disposal. Case Western Reserve University and the Polytechnic Institute of New York will lead the international research nexus necessary to provide these ongoing material solutions and to educate future materials scientists and engineers. Partnerships include the University of Pennsylvania, Rochester Institute of Technology, and universities in the U.K., Brazil, Belgium, and Italy. Together, they provide expertise in synthesis, processing, characterization, theory, and lifecycle analysis needed for this global problem. Under them, twelve U.S. graduate students and postdocs, alongside international peers, will be trained in sustainability problem solving. Broader impacts will include materials innovations applicable outside energy (e.g., consumer products) and a sustainable materials website. The project is funded by NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) through the PIRE.