This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project aims to commercialize and expand the application of piezopolymer nanocomposite technology. Piezoelectric materials are an alternative energy source, which interconvert mechanical and electrical energy. Applications include transducers, actuators, sensors, energy harvesting, vibration dampening, and smart polymers. A strong market need has been for piezopolymeric materials that compete with the temperature and performance level of piezoceramics. In addition to films and fibers, this technology can form nonwoven fabrics, which are excellent geometries for smart materials and wound healing.
The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be the transformation of new energy processes that play an increasingly important role to the public in the business and social foundation of the US as costs of fossil fuels rise. Alternative energy transformations such as solar, wind, biomass, wave and fuel cells are now more actively under commercial development and will no doubt continue to demonstrate growth technically and economically. Piezoelectric energy conversions are more versatile than those mentioned above. Benefits come in forms such as transducers, actuators, sensors, energy harvesting, vibration dampening, and smart polymers.
In this NSF Phase II SBIR project, Tetramer has successfully developed nanocomposite piezoelectric materials which demonstrate a 2x improvement over the performance of commercial piezoelectric polymers. Piezoelectric materials produce an electric voltage when squeezed or, conversely, when a voltage is applied to the material, a mechanical actuation is observed. These materials are used as actuators for many types of equipment including camera lenses, and they are also used as sensors and energy harvesters. While ceramic materials are excellent materials for piezoelectric applications, they are difficult to manufacture. Polymers are more easily processed; however, they tend to have a lower performance. Tetramer’s work has resulted in the development of materials which are significantly improved in the voltage output which helps to bridge the performance gap between polymers and ceramics. Figure 1 shows the voltage produced from a commercial sample and a Tetramer sample. As can be seen, the Tetramer materials have over twice the peak height. Tetramer is continuing to work on the development of these materials and the commercial sale of materials. In addition to the work done in developing new materials, Tetramer trained 3 undergraduate students and 2 high school students over a period of two summers working on the piezoelectric project. These students were able to work in the Tetramer labs and performed relevant research in an industrial setting. In addition to learning the basics of the scientific method, the student were trained on various pieces of advanced scientific equipment and sat in on all business meetings. This allowed the students to not only learn what it means to be a scientist or engineer, but how to become an entrepreneur.
