SBIR Phase II: Bio-based polymers for optical applications

SBIR 第二阶段：用于光学应用的生物基聚合物

• 批准号: 1831288
• 负责人: Jagdish Jethmalani
• 金额: $ 74.76万
• 依托单位: Novol, Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-09-15 至 2022-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1831288&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Bio; based

The broader impact/commercial potential of this SBIR Phase II project is to deliver a bio-based and functionally improved optical polymer that can be made into a lens. The lens product has commercial applications in rapidly growing mass-markets like Prescription eyewear that is growing significantly due to onslaught of myopia. Using scientific data, this proposal demonstrates an improved commercial product for myopia when compared to Polycarbonate, the most popular eyewear material in US. Work proposed in Phase II focuses on development of the polymer at large scale and its conversion to lenses using a lower-cost, one-step molding process that can also reduce current industry wastages by as much as an estimated 90%. For establishing suitability of the product towards commercial applications, the Phase II goals include product testing in lab as well as with real subjects to generate marketable data. Finished prescription lenses are a ~$30 billion plus market, with ~70% of lens sales serving myopic patients, who will see a tremendous benefit from using our ultra-clear lens. Broader impact of this technology proposal is to make eyeglasses exponentially more affordable in contrast to today's high costs. Price controls exerted by market monopolies like Luxottica and Essilor on finished lenses pose a huge barrier to base of pyramid markets. Our easy-to-make lens technology simplifies the eyewear supply chain for benefit of these unconventional markets and can lower costs dramatically for billions of people around the world, who are separated by a pair of glasses from otherwise blindness.This SBIR Phase II project proposes to leverage properties of sugars to build an optically clear, transparent polymer of good refractive index, low dispersion and low density. In commercial applications of this polymer as a prescription lens, it thus represents a state-of-the-art product that combines the best properties of various incumbent eyewear materials into one. A key intellectual merit of this SBIR project is to achieve a plastic with optical properties similar to glass, a gold standard in optical materials. Our chemistry platform is 90% bio-based, a unique value proposition in prescription lens industry, where use of extremely toxic and hazardous chemicals is common. Phase I work has also led to the development of a novel route of manufacturing lenses which can lower cost barriers for setting up optical labs, expedite the process for making prescription lenses and cut wastages in current prescription industry. In Phase II, our goal is to methodically develop the process for making lenses using Novol's polymers and obtain data to translate the proposed technology to a commercially preferred lens product with special benefits to myopic patients.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该SBIR第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是提供一种可制成透镜的生物基和功能改进的光学聚合物。该透镜产品在快速增长的大众市场中具有商业应用，如处方眼镜，由于近视的冲击而显着增长。使用科学数据，该提案证明了与美国最受欢迎的眼镜材料聚碳酸酯相比，近视眼的商业产品有所改善。第二阶段的工作重点是大规模开发聚合物，并使用低成本的一步成型工艺将其转化为镜片，该工艺还可以将当前的行业浪费减少多达90%。为了确定产品对商业应用的适用性，第二阶段的目标包括在实验室和真实的受试者中进行产品测试，以生成可销售的数据。 成品处方镜片是一个超过300亿美元的市场，其中约70%的透镜销售服务于近视患者，他们将从使用我们的超清透镜中获得巨大的利益。这项技术提案的更广泛影响是使眼镜与当今的高成本相比以指数方式更实惠。Luxottica和Essilor等市场垄断企业对成品镜片的价格控制对金字塔市场构成了巨大的障碍。我们易于制造的透镜技术简化了眼镜供应链，使这些非传统市场受益，并可大幅降低全球数十亿人的成本，这些人因一副眼镜而免于失明。SBIR第二阶段项目提出利用糖的特性来构建具有良好折射率、低色散和低密度的光学清晰透明聚合物。在这种聚合物作为处方透镜的商业应用中，它因此代表了将各种现有眼镜材料的最佳性能组合成一种的最先进产品。 该SBIR项目的一个关键智力价值是实现具有类似于玻璃的光学特性的塑料，这是光学材料的黄金标准。我们的化学平台90%是生物基的，这在处方透镜行业是一个独特的价值主张，该行业通常使用剧毒和危险化学品。第一阶段的工作还导致了一种新的镜片制造路线的开发，该路线可以降低建立光学实验室的成本障碍，加快处方镜片的制造过程，并减少当前处方行业的浪费。在第二阶段，我们的目标是有条不紊地开发使用Novol聚合物制造镜片的工艺，并获得数据，将拟议的技术转化为商业上首选的透镜产品，对近视患者有特殊的好处。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。