Materials

Dr. Damien Guironnet from the University of Illinois has developed a chemical recycling method for upcycling propylene and isobutene solid wastes. This technique may be used to produce higher value feedstock materials (e.g., propylene and isobutene) from polyethylene and polypropylene with high selectivity. This process achieves high yield, in comparison with other chemical recycling techniques, through a combination of reactor design, catalyst selection, and process optimization.

Dr. Flaherty has developed a method for synthesizing zeolites with controlled defect density. By controlling the defect density of the zeolite materials during synthesis, their hydrophobicity can be controlled. This is a first of its kind synthetic technique allows for the physical and chemical properties of a variety of zeolite materials to be finely tuned which may have a significant impact on their performance as catalysts and adsorbents. Moreover, this synthetic technique can be easily implemented into existing process streams with minor or no modifications to existing procedures.

Researchers from the University of Illinois developed a novel method to fabricate patterns on polymer substrate pDCPD and pCOD using frontal polymerization(FP). Unlike traditional polymer manufacturing techniques, this technology does not rely on deterministic methods such as molds, inverse replicas. By introducing thermal instabilities, this invention generates patterns as the polymerization process takes place through FP with a significantly lower energy input and shorter curing process compared to the previously available technique. Notably, the patterning introduced in the polymer using this technology is not limited to the surface. It can also change the mechanical property of the polymer, specifically stiffness, opacity, and absorbance, to create volume patterning as well as color patterning.

This technology can be utilized to introduce unique designs in various applications. Furthermore, it can potentially improve surface functionalities as well as the mechanical function of the polymer used in various products including automotive body panels, aerospace applications, protective films, construction material, and many more.

Dr. Miljkovic has developed microstructured aluminum (Al) tubes with increased heat transfer rates of 240% during refrigerant flow boiling. Highly conformal are generated by a scalable etching technique. The cost-effective techniques used to create etched-Al microstructures stand to significantly reduce manufacturing cost and time required for current enhancement approaches such as extrusion, drawing, and welding. At the same time increased performance is ensured on the thermal side. In addition, the fabricated etched structures are highly durable due to structure formation based on the base metal, and therefore do not suffer from thermal expansion coefficient mismatch issues, as is the case with other enhancements.