Award Data

This Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Phase II project has the overall objective of developing a multi-component melt spinning approach to produce a new family of high performance fibers using standard low-cost polymers. The new high-strength and/or high-modulus polymeric fiber is to be made using cutting-edge but commercially available spinning technology and an innovative and ...

Organophosphorus chemical warfare nerve agents (OP-CWA) are attractive to terrorist groups and rogue states as an inexpensive and accessible technology for chemical warfare. OP-CWA and organophosphate pesticides cause severe neurological symptoms and death by inhibiting the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE); the resulting excess acetylcholine accumulates and overstimulates the human or animal bo ...

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase 1 project will develop materials processing technologies to effectively utilize recycled carbon fiber (RCF) derived from carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) thermoset wastes as fiber reinforcement in structural sheet molding compounds (SMC). As recycled carbon fibers have different morphologies and properties than the virgin carbon fibers currently ...

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II project seeks to identify new and improved promoters to create enhanced genetically modified crops. Plant biotechnology relies on the insertion of promoter-gene constructs into plants. The promoter is the portion of DNA that controls when and where a gene is expressed. The relatively few plant promoters in use today have significant limitatio ...

This SBIR Phase I project will develop and evaluate the feasibility of a proprietary centrifugal froth flotation process for continuous harvest of algae. A test prototype will be built and evaluated in Phase I. Both technical and economic feasibility will be investigated for this low-cost microalgae continuous harvesting and dewatering system, which will be critical for third-generation alternat ...

This SBIR Phase I project will convert (recycle) CO2 into useful and economically important by-products (i.e., industrial feed stocks) using a nano crystalline anatase (TiO2) photo catalyst with a high surface area. Anatase is a well known photo-catalyst. The co-founders of the Nanospring platform hold a patent on the project catalyst system that has shown the ability to convert CO2 to methanol ( ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to develop a novel textile coating and reading device for positive identification applications such as anti-counterfeit, textile brand verification, etc. The basis of this project is to use a layer-by-layer self-assembly process to control the interface between engineered textile substrates and nanomaterials. The resulting nanost ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to develop a new clinical instrument capable of using a novel optical technology to scan large areas of epithelial tissue for the detection and localization of precancers. The optical technology, angle-resolved Low Coherence Interferometry (a/LCI) has shown excellent sensitivity and specificity for detecting precancerous lesions ...

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will develop a hand-held controller for motor-powered surgical instruments. The controller will enable automated operation of the surgical instrument, including biomechanically informed algorithms, that decrease trauma to tissues during surgery. This controller will be first deployed on a new thoracic retractor, an instrument used to pry a ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to develop an ultrahigh speed, precision, micro-milling spindle. The trends in industrial and military products that demand miniaturization, design flexibility, reduced energy consumption and high accuracy continue to accelerate -- especially in the medical, biotechnology, telecommunications and energy fields. These industry segme ...