Evolving to meet industry needs, Georgia Tech’s RBI has research and development capabilities that build on the Institute’s strategic resources and foster collaborations with other academic institutions and industry partners.

Besides ongoing studies in materials, recent research discoveries have resulted in hybrid fuel cells that can produce electricity directly from biomass, paper that repels liquid, and woody agricultural waste products that have commercial value.

Researchers Convert Basic Discoveries in Materials Science and Engineering to Real-World Applications

When scientists and engineers use the word materials, they mean any naturally occurring substance manipulated by humans to make things. Beginning with the first metals, discovered by trial and error thousands of years ago, the drive to develop materials that better serve human needs has played a central role in the rise of complex societies.

Today, researchers have moved past haphazard experimentation to examining materials at every level – from the nanoscale to the visible and tangible macroscale – to understand why a material behaves as it does.

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Solar-Induced Hybrid Fuel Cell Produces Electricity Directly from Biomass

Although low-temperature fuel cells powered by methanol or hydrogen have been well studied, existing low-temperature fuel cell technologies cannot directly use biomass as a fuel because of the lack of an effective catalyst system for polymeric materials.

Now, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new type of low-temperature fuel cell that directly converts biomass to electricity with assistance from a catalyst activated by solar or thermal energy. The hybrid fuel cell can use a wide variety of biomass sources, including starch, cellulose, lignin (and even switchgrass), powdered wood, algae, and waste from poultry processing.

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Lotus Effect Paper Repels Oil and Water

Paper is known for its ability to absorb liquids, making it ideal for products such as paper towels. But by modifying the underlying network of cellulose fibers, etching off surface “fluff,” and applying a thin chemical coating, researchers have created a new type of paper that repels a wide variety of liquids – including water and oil.

The paper takes advantage of the so-called “lotus effect” – used by leaves of the lotus plant – to repel liquids through the creation of surface patterns at two different size scales and the application of a chemical coating. The material, developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology, uses nanometer- and micron-scale structures, plus a surface fluorocarbon, to turn old-fashioned paper into an advanced material.

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Making Money from Lignin: Roadmap Shows How to Improve Lignocellulosic Biofuel Biorefining

When making cellulosic ethanol from plants, one problem is what to do with a woody agricultural waste product called lignin. The old adage in the pulp industry has been that one can make anything from lignin except money. A new review article in the journal Science points the way toward a future where lignin is transformed from a waste product into valuable materials such as low-cost carbon fiber for cars or bio-based plastics. Using lignin in this way would create new markets for the forest products industry and make ethanol-to-fuel.

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