Open Competition 3 - Chemistry and Materials

Project Columbus: Discovering Whole New Worlds of Polar Polymers

Sponsor: Rohm and Haas Company

• Project Performance Period: 5/1/2004 - 4/30/2007
• Total project (est.): $7,242,258.00
• Requested ATP funds: $2,000,000.00

Plastics constitute the fourth-largest industry in the United States, one with a long record of steady growth and providing good jobs. However the output of new, commercially viable plastic materials is dwindling. A new world of polymeric materials awaits if researchers can find ways to control the architecture of acrylic polymers, such as those used in coatings and adhesives, while combining the best features of acrylics with those of polyolefins, used in fibers, films, and bulk goods. Rohm and Haas Company plans a three-year project to develop a new catalysis technology platform that will enable cost-effective production of new families of high-performance acrylic polymers and copolymers, with molecular-level control over their properties. Catalysts are substances, used in minute amounts, that initiate, accelerate, or control chemical reactions that would otherwise be too slow or inefficient to be economical. The proposed technology would enable researchers, for the first time, to make acrylic polymers to order and to combine acrylics and olefins into novel plastic materials under commercially suitable conditions. The advance would improve control and placement of polar groups (clusters of atoms that impart unique properties) which are common in acrylics, and which influence important properties such as toughness, adhesion, and surface behavior. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, Calif.) will be subcontracted to design and synthesize new catalysts and other chemicals. ATP funding will enable Rohm and Haas to aggressively pursue the full breadth of possibilities to discover what is perhaps a key missing link in the world of polymer making. If successfully developed, the technology would generate new catalysts, polymers, and product lines with economic, social, and environmental benefits. For instance, new polymers could be developed as durable binders for architectural paints, reducing the use and emission of volatile organic compounds that currently are used for stability and flow but that are harmful to the environment and human health. In addition, new plastic additives that improve adhesion of coatings could substantially reduce production costs for automobile bumpers. Other potential applications for the new materials that would be developed include papers and inks.

For project information:

Kenneth A. Gedaka, (215) 641-7940
kgedaka@rohmhaas.com

ATP Project Manager

Douglas Bischoff, (301) 975-8597
douglas.bischoff@nist.gov