SBIR Phase I: Bio-based polymers for optical applications

这个小型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。光学材料广泛用于眼镜、相机、手机、光缆等应用。Novol的目标是通过创造出与玻璃相比具有更好的光学性能平衡的新型聚合物，同时具有韧性和轻量化，从而推动光学材料研究的创新前沿。其目标是为眼科疾病患者提供显著的视觉质量改善。尤其是在儿科和远视处方市场，由于对镜片性能的更大需求，镜片材料的选择受到限制。长期项目目标将专注于制造更低成本和更高效的透镜组件，用于成像、诊断和监视应用。这项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。通过这项工作提供的商业机会不仅将使最终用户受益，也将使镜片制造商受益，因为它能够利用安全和生物衍生的单体(如糖)来制造当今S市场上非常重要的一类材料。这一阶段研究项目的技术目标是展示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、杂原子的存在和多官能团的存在而具有多种性质。这项研究旨在将有机、聚合物和生物化学的原理结合在一起，创造一种新型的高度透明、强大和折射的聚合物，用于包括透镜在内的许多光学应用。最近光学材料的创新主要集中在增加一种单一的透镜属性，即折射率，主要是为处方眼镜应用提供更薄的透镜。这项工作的技术目标不仅是创造高折射率光学聚合物，而且专注于制造平衡高折射率与光学材料的其他关键特性的聚合物，如低光色散和理想的机械强度。具有如此平衡性能的镜片材料目前尚不为人所知，如果被创造出来，将为处方眼镜、运动配件、相机组件和设备屏幕等许多商业应用提供独特的优势。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，以改善现有聚合物的性能和生物含量。

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.