Cooperative Agreement W911NF1420086

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Materials Research under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) provides $300,000 to the University of Washington to conduct research on developing sustainable polymer foams from renewable biomass-derived polymer mixtures. The key focus is on synthesizing hierarchical polymeric foams with controllable structure and mechanical properties directly from unprocessed polymer mixtures found in...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Convergence Accelerator Track M award of $649,990 to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) supports the development and commercialization of a family of sustainable bio-based plastics derived from hydroxy fatty acids. Key activities include scaling up monomer synthesis, conducting polymer characterization and recycling assessments, and performing techno-economic and life cycle analyses. RPI is collaborating with Danimer Scientific, a bioplastics...

This Project Grant award provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation (CFDA 47.041 Engineering) will support the development of novel manufacturing principles for high-performance, sustainable packaging films from hierarchically reinforced biopolymers. The $374,160 award to North Carolina State University aims to enable the production of natural material-based films that match or exceed the properties of synthetic polymer films,...

The National Science Foundation awarded Northwestern University a $455,075 Project Grant under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.049) to develop recyclable thermoset polymers for high-performance composites. Over a three-year period ending May 2026, the university will synthesize model epoxy networks incorporating aromatic disulfide bonds at various points and use mechanical testing, Raman scattering, and thin film experiments to characterize the materials and...

This federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) is providing $1.1M to Purdue University and subawardees to develop sustainable, hemp-derived bioplastics with exceptional properties and recyclability. The goal is to accelerate the displacement of legacy petrochemical-based plastics, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and microplastics. The project will investigate novel hemp-derived monomers to synthesize a variety of...

This $578,437 National Science Foundation project grant supports research at Texas A&M University to develop fast manufacturing techniques for high-performance thermoplastic polymer composites. The research aims to engineer the crystallinity of these composites during fast processing to achieve high stiffness, strength and toughness concurrently. Nanomaterials consisting of cellulose nanocrystals and graphene nanoplatelets will be used to control crystallinity without hazardous solvents...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences Program (CFDA 47.049) provides $665,958 to the University of Minnesota to conduct fundamental research on the discovery and development of new sustainable polyester-based plastics and elastomers. The research team, led by Professor Marc A. Hillmyer, aims to generate high-performance polymeric compounds that can be industrially composted at the end of their use, promoting a practical...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) aims to develop a new class of fiber-reinforced plastics (FRPs) based on vitrimers. Vitrimers are polymers that can reverse fatigue-induced damage when exposed to heat, improving the durability, safety, and lifecycle performance of FRPs in high-performance applications such as aerospace, automotive, and medical devices. The $150,027 award to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will systematically...

This federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) program (CFDA 47.070), provides $197,500 to Duke University to conduct research on accelerating the discovery of sustainable bioplastics. The project aims to combine high-throughput data capture, multiscale modeling, and machine learning to understand the molecular and chemical mechanisms controlling the transformation of biological matter into...

This $195,000 Federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports research by the University of Colorado to accelerate the development of sustainable bioplastics. The key objectives are to use high-throughput data capture, multiscale modeling, and machine learning to better understand the molecular and chemical mechanisms controlling the transformation of biomatter into thermoformable bioplastics. This knowledge will enable...