Cooperative Agreement DEAR0000282

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Engineering (CFDA #47.041) awarded a $275,987 Project Grant to the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) to conduct collaborative research on understanding the lubrication mechanisms of environmentally-compatible protic ionic liquids. The 3-year project aims to identify links between the molecular structure of choline amino acid protic ionic liquids (PILs) and their functional lubricating performance at nano- and macro-scales. The...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET) under the Engineering (CFDA 47.041) program provides $320,600 to the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) from August 1, 2023 to July 31, 2026. The primary objective of this collaborative research project is to understand how the molecular structure of protic ionic liquids (PILs), a class of eco-friendly lubricating fluids, affects their...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) award of $450,659 to The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), awarded on February 1, 2024, will support fundamental tribochemistry research to elucidate the friction and wear behaviors of thermally-synthesized carbon (TSC) materials. The research aims to understand what controls superlubricious behaviors of different carbon materials, which could inform the design of carbon components like brushes and mechanical...

This $300,000 federal Project Grant award from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) will support research at Iowa State University to develop biolubricants derived from waste cooking oil (WCO) for use in electric vehicle (EV) drivetrains. The project aims to formulate and evaluate WCO-based lubricant base oils with ionic liquid additives to optimize friction, wear, and thermal properties compared to...

The National Science Foundation awarded the University of Arkansas at Little Rock a $100,000 Project Grant under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084). The grant funds the development of an emerging surface coating technology to apply ceramic and composite coatings to metal parts. The goal is to improve mechanical properties like hardness and adhesion strength as well as tribological behaviors related to friction and wear resistance. The proposed coating method...

This Project Grant award, valued at $326,975, was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation under the NSF Directorate for Engineering (CFDA 47.041) program. The primary grantee is the University of California Irvine (UC Irvine). The goal of this 3-year project is to investigate the structural, mechanical, and electronic coupling of van der Waals heterostructures to enable friction control at the nanoscale. The research aims to...

This $424,324 National Science Foundation project grant supports research at the University of Illinois to advance fundamental understanding of the relationship between double network hydrogel microstructure and frictional characteristics. The grant is part of NSF's $47.041 million Engineering research and education program. Specifically, the grant will fund experiments and modeling to elucidate lubrication mechanisms in physically and chemically crosslinked double network hydrogels. Researchers...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) Project Grant award of $305,000 to Gelastomerics LLC is focused on developing a new hydrogel elastomer technology to address the need for intrinsically lubricious elastomer materials in the medical device market. The key products or services to be delivered under this Phase I SBIR project include: Validating that the new hydrogel elastomer technology can meet the technical performance requirements for...

This three-year $423,598 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) will fund research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to develop a physics-based contact model for adhesion and friction in multiphasic soft materials swollen by liquids. The researchers will explore rate-dependent mechanisms governing adhesion and friction at interfaces of these materials and correct current contact formulations accordingly. They will derive and validate a unified...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation awarded a $350,000 project grant to the University of Illinois to investigate friction control in van der Waals heterostructures, two-dimensional layered materials. The objective is to establish an experimental and theoretical foundation for tuning the structural-mechanical-electronic properties of these materials to enable friction control at the nanoscale. The project will involve assembling van...