Award Data

This project will develop a new scientific instrument optimized for the advanced characterization of near-infrared fluorescent nanoparticles that can exist as left- or right-handed structures (enantiomers). Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are the leading current example of such nanomaterials. Applied NanoFluorescence, LLC (ANF) proposes a novel multi-mode chiroptical spectrometer that can ...

Two main problems are targeted by the proposed work: (1) the underutilization of coal, a valuable natural resource, has led to a catastrophic drop in employment within the coal industry ecosystem in specific geographic areas in the country; and (2) the need within the insurance-driven roof replacement market for a suitable, light weight, low cost, high durability roofing material.These problems wi ...

Thermochemical processing via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is capable of processing a broad range of feedstocks, has a favorable net energy ratio, and produces an energy-dense liquid biooil product.However, there is an obstacle with current HTL processes that has hampered the adoption of this technology—the HTL process produces a considerable amount of aqueous organic byproducts and HTL oil r ...

Indium tin oxide (ITO) films are currently the most widely used transparent conductor in optoelectronic applications. However, ITO suffers from several major technological and economic limitations for large area applications such as inadequate performance, high cost, and brittleness. The primary objective of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I/Phase II project is to develop the ...

Modern Model-Based Enterprise / Engineering (MBE) systems rely on freeform surfaces built as complex combinations of geometric primitives to define engineered objects. Unfortunately, the intersection of freeform surfaces in MBE applications results in highly approximated solutions, degrading models that cost billions annually by US industry to fix. Current technology limits the abilities of users ...

In this Phase I SBIR proposal, SandBox Semiconductor™ proposes to develop an Advanced Manufacturing and Material Measurements software tool called Weave ™ for accelerating and automating SEM image analysis for the semiconductor industry. During the development of a new manufacturing process line for a semiconductor device, tens of thousands of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images are take ...

Covetic materials are a class of metal-carbon composites whose electrical and thermal conductivity are reported to be up to 40-50% higher than pure metals or alloys. Although covetic materials have been produced from a number of metals including copper, silver and aluminum, their enhanced electrical and thermal conductivities have not yet been demonstrated in real world applications. NAECO, LLC pr ...

Separations often account for a majority of process costs. This is because all traditional separation processes have inherent weaknesses that prevent the system from achieving perfect (or even near perfect in many instances) selectivity. These weaknesses result in large recycle streams and require multiple separation units in concert in order to produce a product clean enough for use or sale. An a ...

The bulk of post-consumer plastics ends up in landfills or in the environment. In principle, most discarded plastics can be recycled. In practice, the standard approaches generally yield materials that are of lower quality than the initial product, resulting in “downcycling”, or a loss of value. In contrast, we think that a bioconversion process can upcycle plastic waste, yielding value-added ...

Over the past two decades, there has been a drastic advance in the sensing technologies and data acquisition systems. These technologies have been deployed in carbon sequestration to continuously monitor CO2 migration and location during and after injection. A complex network of surface and underground sensors is often installed generating large volume of intricate datasets. These datasets require ...