SBIR-STTR Award

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to address the global challenge of pollution abatement and air purification which have a profound impact on the environment, health, and economy. Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent each year on emission control activities, yet air pollution costs the global economy over five trillion of dollars annually in welfare costs and is attributed to one in every eight deaths. The design and performance of current industrial catalytic air purification technologies is insufficient to treat the growing number of airborne pollutants. Finding sustainable, cost-effective solutions to this problem, and is becoming increasingly important in view of tightening regulations. The technology we propose has a high commercialization potential due to the fact that it is cost-effective, shows excellent long-term performance and potential for scalable fabrication within an existing manufacturing framework within the United States. Further, the founders of the company are inventors of the technology and have exclusive licensing of the core IP. Significantly, our demonstration of operating temperature reductions has been well-received by industry as evidenced by findings from our customer discovery effort through programs such as NSF I-Corps.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project addresses outstanding challenges in catalytic converters, notably technical challenges associated with cold start, durability, and high cost, which can be attributed to the use of substantial amounts of platinum group metals, and reliance on the limited reserves of these metals. Through highly controlled composition and nano-, micro-, and macro- structuration, we have previously demonstrated dramatically reduced precious metal content in a catalytic decomposition of known pollutants. The research objectives of this SBIR project are to develop a scalable deposition method of these advanced catalytic materials onto industrially relevant substrates, to promote and accelerate their integration into commercial products to tackle the growing problem of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The technical work will involve the synthesis of these materials and modifications to the synthetic schemes in a way that will be compatible with such large-scale deposition processes, as well as longevity, robustness, and catalytic testing. It will require building equipment for the deposition. Overcoming the technological challenges that are the subject of this SBIR Project will facilitate translation of the nanostructured materials to a broad range of catalytic applications related to pollution abatement and air purification.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is addressing the growing societal need for indoor air purification, as indoor air quality (IAQ) directly affects human health, productivity, cognitive function, and quality-of-life. Awareness of the long-term consequences of poor IAQ has recently witnessed an increase due to research results, improvements in monitoring and sensing technology, public awareness campaigns by organizations such as the American Lung Association, World Health Organization, and Environmental Protection Agency, and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. Finding sustainable, economical, and effective solutions to the problem of poor IAQ will greatly benefit public health and wellbeing and will help curtail the spread of pathogens, minimizing the need for social distancing. This project will develop a new system air purification, addressing viruses, harmful chemicals, odors, and ultrafine particulates. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project aims to scale up the production methodology and coating process of novel catalytic materials. The materials are 3D nanostructured porous powders that are designed at multiple length scales to achieve enhanced catalytic activity, stability, and longevity, while reducing costs and utilizing raw materials in an environmentally responsible manner. The system uses a synthetic approach based on self-organization of nanoscale building blocks and wet chemistry tools in order to assemble finely structured coatings for integration in air-purification units. This project focuses on expanding it to production scale, wherein achieving control over the composition, structure, porosity, and placement of nanoparticles on a production scale is challenging. The materials platform development will include adaptation to high-throughput instrumentation and scale-up of the material production and coating process to pilot production. In the process, this project will develop tools and guidelines for manufacturing hierarchically-structured functional materials more generally. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.