I-Corps: NC2 Team - Sustainable Polymer Nanocomposite

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力在于具有部分可持续性的更轻、更坚固的聚合物复合材料。“轻而强”的特性是聚合物复合材料的基本特征。这些复合材料已经在汽车工业中证明了它们的有效性，包括提高发动机效率、降低燃油消耗、减少二氧化碳排放和提高安全性。我们的聚合物纳米复合材料的增强性能包括更轻的重量、更高的强度和部分可持续性以及成本效益，这是当前复合材料行业的兴趣所在，将使航空航天、汽车、体育、国防、建筑、包装、电气和电子、生物医学等广泛的工业部门受益。聚合物纳米复合材料的市场不断增长。根据联合市场研究公司发布的一项新研究，到2022年，全球聚合物纳米复合材料市场将达到115亿美元。这个i-Corps项目基于开发具有纳米级增强填料的聚合物复合材料以及部分可持续的聚合物基质。与传统的聚合物复合材料相比，纳米填料的优点在于其显著的比表面积和巨大的界面面积。通过对纳米填料进行表面改性，可以有效地稳定纳米填料在聚合物中的分散，大大加强纳米填料与聚合物基质之间的界面结合，从而改善聚合物纳米复合材料的力学性能，从而为更轻、更坚固的材料带来巨大的潜力。同时，将开发环境友好型生物基粘结剂，不仅取代传统的表面偶联剂对纳米填料进行表面改性，还将部分取代传统的聚合物基质，以增强所合成的聚合物复合材料的可持续性和机械性能。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project lies in lighter and stronger polymer composite materials with partial sustainability. 'Light and strong' features are essential to polymer composites. These composites have demonstrated their effectiveness in the automobile industry from improved engine efficiency, low fuel consumption, reduction in the emission of CO2 and increased safety. The enhanced properties of our polymer nanocomposite materials including lighter weight, higher strength, and partial sustainability in combination with cost-effectiveness is of interest to the current composite industry and will benefit a wide range of industrial sectors such as aerospace, automotive, sports, defense, construction, packaging, electrical & electronics, biomedical etc. There is a growing market in polymer nanocomposites. The global polymer nanocomposite market will reach $11.5 billion by 2022 according to new research published by Allied Market Research.This I-Corps project is based on developing polymer composite materials with nanoscale reinforcing fillers as well as a partially sustainable polymer matrix. Compared to traditional polymer composite materials, benefits of nanofiller come from their significantly higher specific surface area and concurrently enormous interfacial area. Surface modification of nanofillers will be carried out to efficiently stabilize the dispersion of nanofillers in the polymer matrix, substantially strengthen interfacial bonding between nanofillers and the polymer matrix, and consequently improve mechanical performance of the polymer nanocomposites, which brings in great potential for even lighter and stronger materials. In the meantime, environmentally friendly bio-based binders will be developed to not only replace conventional surface coupling agents to surface-modify nanofillers, but also to partially replace the conventional polymer matrix to enhance the sustainability and mechanical performance of the resultant polymer composite materials.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.