I/UCRC Phase I: Center for Bioplastics and BIocomposites

生物塑料和生物复合材料的I/UCRC旨在创造变革性的新材料和加工技术，以及可靠、可比的材料数据，以实现生物可再生替代材料的高效和有利可图的工业应用。中心团队包括来自聚合物加工，聚合物化学，材料科学和作物利用领域的专家，允许全面的跨学科方法。参与机构拥有最先进的聚合物加工和表征设施，以促进对生物聚合物和生物复合材料的热机械性能的加工影响的基本理解。生物塑料行业是美国增长最快的行业之一（每年增长10%至20%）。拟议的中心努力寻求利用工业界对利用研究工作的兴趣，以加速这些新材料的确证材料数据和加工经验的系统开发。该中心旨在培养和教育本科生，研究生和博士后作为未来的科学家和工程师在这一领域。该中心还将准备针对K-12教师的基于网络的视频，这些视频将提供如何在课堂上制作易于制作的现成生物塑料的指导。这将提供一条途径，向青年学生介绍STEM，并让他们参与绿色技术。

The I/UCRC for Bioplastics and Biocomposites intends to create of transformative new materials and processing technologies as well as the reliable, comparable material data to allow efficient and profitable industrial use of biorenewable, alternative materials. The center team includes experts from the fields of polymer processing, polymer chemistry, materials science, and crop utilization, allowing a well-rounded interdisciplinary approach. The participating institutions have state-of-the-art facilities for polymer processing and characterization to facilitate the development of fundamental understanding of the influence of processing on the thermomechanical properties of biopolymers and biocomposites.The bioplastics industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the US (10% to 20% growth annually). The proposed center effort seeks to take advantage of expressed industrial interest in leveraging research efforts in order to accelerate systematic development of corroborated material data and processing experience for these novel materials. This center intends to train and educate undergraduates, graduate students and post docs as the future scientists and engineers in this area. The center will also prepare web-based videos targeted at K-12 teachers that will provide instructions on how to make easy-to-make, off-the-shelf bioplastics in the classroom. This will provide a pathway to introduce young students to STEM and engage them in green technologies.