This $1,800,000 Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation Division of Chemistry under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) supports the establishment of the NSF Center for Polymers for a Circular Economy (PCE). The center aims to develop new strategies for synthesizing effective replacement polymers from inexpensive and sustainable feedstocks like carbon dioxide, biomass residues, and food waste oils. Key objectives include designing novel polymers that...
This $1,000,000 federal Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop low-energy strategies for sustainable recycling of plastics. The project aims to integrate polymer degradation with microbial bioenergy production to achieve critical materials recycling and net-zero energy goals. Specifically, the research team will engineer enzymes to enable polymer...
This Project Grant award, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CFDA 47.049) program, supports the development of novel chemically recyclable polymers that can be easily depolymerized back to their constituent monomers under mild conditions. The $118,229 award to the University of New Haven aims to address the challenge of the energy-intensive depolymerization process typically required for commodity polymers.
The key products and...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $742,587 Project Grant through its Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) to The Trustees of Princeton University's Office of Research and Project Administration Division. The grant supports Princeton's research to develop degradable polymers derived from commodity plastic monomers. Key objectives include investigating the kinetics and mechanisms of cobalt-mediated radical copolymerization of isocyanides and acrylates,...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CFDA 47.049) program provides $248,000 in funding to Dartmouth College to support computational and theoretical research on modeling crystallization in semicrystalline polymer blends, such as recycled commodity plastics. The research aims to reveal the crystallization mechanism near phase-separated interfaces and develop a numerical simulation framework to predict the semicrystalline...
This $600,000 National Science Foundation project grant supports research at the University of Southern California to develop new manufacturing methods for recycling post-consumer carbon fiber composite materials. The research aims to preserve the value of continuous carbon fibers and recover the polymer matrix from aircraft and other composites currently buried in landfills or subjected to pyrolysis. The project will study techniques to remanufacture recycled carbon fibers and polymer matrix...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant, awarded under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), will fund research to develop a novel biocatalytic process for deconstructing and recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics. The $378,682 award to the University of Colorado aims to explore the use of natural enzymes, such as lipases, to break down PET in nonaqueous solvents rather than water, which can improve the efficiency and conversion of plastic waste. The research will...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Engineering has awarded a $682,463 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant to Georgia TECH Research Corporation's Office of Sponsored Programs to conduct research on understanding the deformation and failure mechanisms of recycled polymers. The project aims to enable the substitution of virgin plastics with high-performance recycled materials, addressing the challenge of plastic pollution. Through an integrated experimental and...
The National Science Foundation awarded a $657,610 Project Grant to the University of Pittsburgh under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) to support research toward establishing a novel dual-wavelength photoinhibition aided photopolymer additive manufacturing process. The university will develop a digital light processing method using a second wavelength light to curb curing and enhance the geometric fidelity and functional integrity of parts. Key activities include elucidating light...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) has awarded a $463,136 Project Grant to the University of Massachusetts Lowell to explore a hybrid approach to upcycling waste polyethylene (PE) into value-added chemicals. The two-step process involves oxidative catalytic pyrolysis to decompose PE into intermediate products, followed by bioconversion using engineered yeast to produce nylon precursors and other platform chemicals. The research aims to develop an...