SBIR Phase I: Bio-based polymers for optical applications

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将在光学材料领域。光学材料广泛应用于眼镜、相机、手机、光纤电缆等领域。Novol旨在推动光学材料研究创新的前沿，通过创造与玻璃相比具有更好的光学性能平衡的新聚合物，同时又坚韧又轻便。目的是为眼科疾病患者提供视力质量的显著改善。在儿童和远视处方市场中，由于对镜片性能的更大需求，镜片材料的选择受到限制，可以看到特别的好处。该项目的长期目标将集中在为成像、诊断和监控应用制造成本更低、效率更高的镜头组件。该研究的另一个平行目标是减少现有光学聚合物对环境的影响，这些聚合物通常由剧毒材料制成。这项工作带来的商业机会不仅有利于最终用户，也有利于透镜制造商，因为它能够利用安全和生物衍生的单体，如糖，来制造当今非常重要的一类材料。年代市场。这个第一阶段研究项目的技术目标是证明一种由糖制成的新型聚合物的光学和机械优势。糖由于其复杂的结构、杂原子和多个官能团的存在而具有多用途的性质。这项研究旨在将有机、聚合物和生物化学的原理结合起来，创造一种新型的高透明、强折射率聚合物，可用于许多光学应用，包括透镜。最近光学材料的创新主要集中在增加单透镜属性，折射率，主要是为处方眼镜应用提供更薄的镜片。这项工作的技术目标超越了仅仅制造高折射率光学聚合物的需要，而是专注于制造能够平衡高折射率与光学材料的其他关键特性（如光的低色散和理想的机械强度）的聚合物。具有如此平衡性能的镜头材料目前尚不为人知，如果能够创造出来，将为许多镜头的商业应用提供独特的优势，如处方眼镜、运动配件、相机组件和设备屏幕。这项工作的另一个技术目标将集中在糖衍生物与已知合成聚合物的共聚合上，以改善现有聚合物的性能和生物基含量。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will be in the area of optical materials. Optical materials are widely used in applications such as eyeglasses, cameras, cell phones, fiber-optic cables etc. Novol aims to push the frontiers of innovation in optical material research by creating new polymers with a much better balance of optical properties relative to glass while being tough and lightweight. The goal is to provide significant improvement in vision quality for patients with ophthalmic disorders. Particular benefit could be seen in pediatric and hyperopic prescription markets where choices of lens materials are restricted due to greater demand on lens properties. Long term project goals will focus on making lower-cost and more efficient lens assemblies for imaging, diagnostics and surveillance applications. A parallel aim of the research is to reduce the environmental impact of existing optical polymers, which are often made from highly toxic materials. Commercial opportunity presented through this work will not only benefit the end users but also the lens manufacturers through its ability to utilize safe and bio-derived monomers like sugars for making a highly important category of materials in today?s markets.The technical objectives in this Phase I research project are to demonstrate optical and mechanical advantages of a new class of polymers made from sugars. Sugars have versatile properties arising from their complex structures, presence of heteroatoms and multiple functional groups. This research aims to bring together principles of organic, polymer and biological chemistry to create a new type of highly transparent, strong and refractive polymers useful in many optical applications, including lenses. Recent innovation in optical materials has focused largely on increasing a singular lens property, refractive index, mainly to afford thinner lenses for prescription eyewear applications. Technical objectives of this work go beyond the need to create just high index optical polymers and focus on making polymers that balance high refractive index with other critical properties of optical materials such as low dispersion of light and desirable mechanical strength. Lens materials with such well-balanced properties are currently unknown and if created, will provide unique advantages for many commercial applications of lenses such as prescription eyewear, sports accessories, camera assemblies and device screens. Another technical objective of this effort will focus on co-polymerization of sugar derivatives with known synthetic polymers to improve the properties and bio-based content of existing polymers.