Project Grant 20236701740584

This $667,684 National Science Foundation project grant supports fundamental research into the control of structure and mechanical properties of semicrystalline polymers through applied shear flows at Penn State University from August 2022 through July 2026. The grant aims to advance understanding of how brief intervals of shear flow during polymer melting can strongly accelerate crystallization and impact final morphology and performance. Researchers will study three polymer types to...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) project grant under the Engineering (CFDA 47.041) program, awarded to Georgia TECH Research Corp, aims to develop a deep understanding of the behavior and interactions of novel multicomponent fluid mixtures for enhanced heat transfer in electronic and industrial systems. The $499,232 award, spanning from August 1, 2024 to July 31, 2027, will investigate the stability and properties of phase change material (PCM) particles suspended in liquid gallium alloys,...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (CFDA 47.049 - Mathematical and Physical Sciences) supports research to understand the detailed physical mechanisms of segregation during capillary flow of molten metallic alloys under both microgravity and terrestrial conditions. The $108,237 award to the University of Kentucky Research Foundation will fund a series of experiments on the International Space Station, along with ground-based experiments and computational modeling, to...

The project grant award of $597,983 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture's (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) supports research at Chapman University to examine the impact of protein-polyphenol interactions on the structure, functional properties, and nutritional value of oilseed protein isolates. The goal is to enhance the quality of sunflower protein isolates and concentrates by controlling these interactions using chemical and enzymatic...

This $366,817 National Science Foundation project grant, awarded under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), will support the development of rigorous computational models and databases for predicting thermophysical properties of industrial supercritical fluid mixtures. The Research Foundation for the State University of New York will receive funding from July 2022 to June 2025 to conduct molecular simulations evaluating temperature-dependent virial coefficients for 31 representative chemical...

This $300,000 National Science Foundation project grant, awarded under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), will fund the development of experimental capabilities to measure properties of supercritical fluids and their mixtures at the University of North Texas from August 2022 to July 2023. The university will obtain experimental data on critical properties for mixtures of carbon dioxide with argon and R134a refrigerant. It will also conduct natural convection experiments to demonstrate the...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) Project Grant award of $530,132 to New York University (NYU) aims to improve the sustainability of industrial crystallization processes through an investigation of laser-induced nucleation mechanisms. The project will utilize continuous-flow, high-pressure microfluidic devices and supervised machine learning to quantify the dielectric polarization and colloidal impurity mechanisms that govern light-induced nucleation. The...

This $333,167 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) supports research by the University of Akron to elucidate the crystallization and molecular reorganization pathways of semicrystalline polymers. The key objectives are to analyze the amorphous structure and crystal-amorphous interface of model semicrystalline polymers using advanced solid-state NMR spectroscopy techniques, and to investigate molecular-level...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CFDA 47.049) program provides $265,026 to Lafayette College to conduct research on the "Role of Crystallinity and Morphology in Degradation and Drug Release of PEO-b-PCL Films." The key objectives are to understand how the physical structure of the polymer material, including crystallinity and phase separation, impacts the controlled release of drug additives and the overall...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) Project Grant award, totaling $920,715, aims to elucidate the roles of gravity on the freezing dynamics of sessile drops in the presence of soluble and insoluble particles. The research will be conducted at the University of Illinois and involve several key tasks: fabricating samples and solutions for experiments on the International Space Station (ISS), coordinating with NASA to prepare the experimental rig, overseeing...