Benanova has been awarded Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grant from the National Science Foundation. The project will develop inexpensive high-performance porous coatings for deposition on textile surfaces for personal protective equipment.
The technical innovation is a breakthrough proprietary technology for formation of novel dendritic polymer particles with hierarchically structured fractal morphology. The soft dendritic colloids are formed when a polymer solution is injected into turbulently sheared anti-solvent medium due to random stretching of the solution droplets by the turbulent flow during the polymer precipitation. The critical technical hurdle for the proposed research and development effort is to scale up the process in a way that the complex fractal morphology of the soft dendritic particles is preserved. These soft fibrillar particles stick to any textile creating hierarchically porous coatings.
As a result of the Phase I research, technical risk will be significantly reduced by identifying the most promising formulations for further technical development and commercialization in a Phase II effort.
About Benanova, Inc.
Benanova, Inc. is a research and development company headquartered in the Research Triangle Park (RTP) area in the state of North Carolina. The company commercializes novel cost efficient environmentally friendly particle systems made of natural materials that can leverage functional properties of bioactive agents. In response to COVID-19 Benanova has accelerated the development of finishing technologies for specialty and performance textiles. For more information, visit www.benanova.com.
About America’s Seed Fund
America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF awards $200 million annually to startups and small businesses, transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact. Startups working across almost all areas of science and technology can receive up to $1.75 million to support research and development (R&D), helping de-risk technology for commercial success. America’s Seed Fund is congressionally mandated through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The NSF is an independent federal agency with a budget of about $8.1 billion that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. For more information, visit www.seedfund.nsf.gov.