Commercialization of Functional Composites Using Ionic and/or Salt-based Technologies
Abstract
Natural Fiber Welding (NFW) is a highly disruptive manufacturing technique with applications ranging from building materials and automotive composites to paper and textiles. NFW is a processing technique with vast potential to dramatically improve manÕs ability to manipulate and modify biopolymer materials. The key feature of NFW is the ability to open up and mobilize biopolymer structures to enable chemistry; this allows the manipulation and modification of natural materials to impart new functionalities (e.g., cotton yarns that store energy).1- 9 NFW has the potential to revolutionize electronic textiles, especially functional fabrics made from natural fibers. Due to the intrinsic complex structure and chemistries of biopolymers, natural materials have the potential to be and do more than manmade polymers. By extending intermolecular associations between fibers, NFW processes are able to unlock natureÕs potential for a wide range of applications. Dr. Luke M. Haverhals (Principal Investigator and Entrepreneurial Lead Ð PI/EI) has been simultaneously pursuing both active fundamental research funded by the Department of Defense (DoD) and commercialization exploration while at both the United States Naval Academy (USNA) and at Bradley University (BU) since 2008. From 2008 through 2013 PI/EI Haverhals collaborated with Dr. Paul Trulove and co-workers to invent NFW technologies while at USNA. NFW technologies were patented through the US Air Force, who sponsored the basic research at USNA. From 2013 until present, PI/EI Haverhals has worked as a tenure track chemistry professor at BU. PI/EI Haverhals has continued to be active in ongoing research to further explore NFW processes as well as related research funded by the US Army to elucidate fundamentals of ionic liquid-based technologies for enhanced energy conversion devices (e.g., batteries and capacitors), electrocatalysis, et cetera. During the summer of 2015, PI/EI Haverhals founded Natural Fiber Welding, Inc. and currently serves as both the company President and CEO. Since taking on private equity investment in early 2016, Natural Fiber Welding, Inc. has grown to 6 paid employees of which there are presently three paid engineering technical staff (chemical, mechanical, and electrical engineers) as well as a business development team (and including a business mentor, Steve Zika, who is an executive with Natural Fiber Welding, Inc). In particular, the company is poised to perform customer discovery and product development within the realm of electronic textiles and composites. The I Corps @ DoD program is an exciting opportunity that has the potential to kick start new initiatives that blend baseline IP discovered by PI/EI Haverhals with the latest in fundamental research funded by the Army Research Office (ARO) while PI Haverhals has been at BU. Our plans are to utilize funds granted to perform business development/customer discovery (e.g., Business Model Canvas) to define overarching value propositions, identify key required infrastructure and finance models required to bring to market both DoD and consumer relevant products (e.g., wearable supercapacitor energy storage fabrics and catalytic water remediation and filtration) that are synergistic with emerging products/markets in, for example, the wearable electronics industry.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 27, 2017
- Source ID
- W911NF1710057
Entities
People
- Luke Haverhals
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Bradley University
- Office of the Secretary of Defense