Project Number: 3620-44000-051-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Aug 09, 2010
End Date: Aug 08, 2015

Objective:
Objective 1: Develop commercially viable polymer composites that contain soy- and cereal derived nanoparticle aggregates. Objective 2: Develop commercially viable polymer composites that contain carbonized agricultural byproducts and feedstocks as filler substitutes for carbon black. Objective 3: Develop new commercially viable biobased nanoparticles by copolymerization of biopolymer and biodegradable synthetic polymers.

Approach:
This plan seeks to develop methods of producing nanoparticle aggregates from soybean, cereal grains, and biochar for polymer composite applications. The research includes developing economically viable methods using mechanical shear and chemically-induced rearrangements of proteins and carbohydrates to form nanoparticle aggregates and modifying their surface with both chemical and physical methods. The proposed experimental approaches will establish scientific working principles of bio-based nanocomposites by investigating size and shape of nanoparticle aggregates and their surface properties that can influence the properties of polymer composites. The proposed experiments will also investigate the mixing and flow behaviors of nanoparticles in polymer composites, and develop commercially viable processing technologies for these composites. The result will then be transferred to composite developers of various applications.