SBIR-STTR Award

Natural fiber welding (NFW) is a disruptive manufacturing technique that has broad applications to sustainable and functional materials/composites manufacturing. The goal of this project is to utilize proprietary new NFW techniques developed by Natural Fiber Welding, Incorporated (NFW, Inc.) to fabricate high performance supercapacitor yarns. The functional composite yarns produced will demonstrate the commercial viability and cost-effectiveness of environmentally friendly supercapacitor yarns and fabrics at scale. NFW involves selective/controlled swelling and mobilization of biopolymers at the surface of fibers by process solvents. Polymer from neighboring fibers can interact and, upon removal of the solvent (which is recovered and recycled for reuse), intermolecular forces are established between neighboring fibers to create a robust composite. By careful control of NFW process conditions, native order and structure of biopolymers is retained thus creating strong composites without glue while preserving the impressive native physical characteristics of fibrous substrate precursors. Simultaneously, new functionalities are imparted, for example, capacitive energy storage materials for this project. The new functional yarns and fabrics developed by this project will find significant use in Department of Defense and civilian relevant applications that employ next generation electronic textile-based devices.

Natural fiber welding (NFW) is a disruptive bioengineering platform that has broad applications to manufacturing high performance materials and composites from abundant natural materials. By careful control of NFW process conditions, native order and structure of biopolymers is retained thus creating strong composites without glue while preserving the impressive native physical characteristics of fibrous substrate precursors. Simultaneously, new functionalities may be imparted, for example, capacitive energy storage materials. In this Phase II project, Natural Fiber Welding, Inc. (NFW, Inc) will develop and demonstrate scalable, cost-effective NFW manufacturing automation that produce yarns capable of storing energy and, by leveraging natural fibers, that have tunable mechanical properties for commercial fabric production. A key objective of this project is to produce flexible, durable, cost-effective supercapacitor yarns while demonstrating capacitance that meets or exceeds >50 mF/cm (length of yarn). Resulting fabrics must be flexible and capable of crumpling without showing major loss of energy density as well as withstanding laundering without major loss of energy density. With this funding, NFW, Inc will be poised to commercialize new innovative products across a number of electronic textile market segments.