University of Akron, Sandia pair up to bring new polymers

By Dan Shingler, Crain's Cleveland Business 

The University of Akron has a huge new partner with big plans for what it views as the nation's top school for polymer science research and technology.

Together, the university and Sandia National Laboratories hope to make large strides in applying new material science to advanced manufacturing, transferring new technology to industry and finding new ways to make some of the smallest things mankind has ever created.

Sandia, the university's new partner thanks to a September agreement to coordinate on research and share in the benefits, might not be a household name, but it is a big deal on the nation's tech scene and one of the U.S. Department of Energy's major facilities.

The lab's work, largely funded by the DOE, is broad-based. Sandia is a chief source of research and development for systems that control, manage and monitor nuclear weapons. It also works on technology for large energy projects and does a lot of science and development in areas such as microscopic 3-D printing. If you need a giant solar array, a supercomputer or the world's largest X-ray generator, you can find them at Sandia.

Between the lab's direct employees and a few thousand contractors who work there, about 12,000 people work at Sandia, said Mike Valley, the lab's senior manager for materials science research and development.

"We're a big lab. Last year, we did $3 billion worth of work," Valley said.

Sandia is physically big as well. Its labs occupy 700 buildings and nearly 13,000 acres in and around Albuquerque, N.M. Plus it has smaller facilities in California and Hawaii, and a 179,000-acre test range in Nevada.

Sandia's size and the broad scope of its work mean it has many opportunities to use the University of Akron's expertise as it seeks to develop new materials, Valley said.

He hopes new polymers can be used in energy-related products and to develop things like new materials for advanced 3-D printers that can make tiny sensors and other devices virtually one molecule at a time.

Sandia has the science, but it needs new materials to employ what it has learned, Valley said.

"One of the areas we identified as a gap was polymers and polymer science," he said.

"We had no one, and we had no ongoing relationships with anyone in academia. We pretty quickly discovered that the University of Akron was the premier school for polymer science. Polymer science is particularly important … we use polymers in so many of our mission applications."

That includes things like materials used in power plants and nuclear devices, but also things more applicable to industry and everyday lives, such as medical devices, Valley said.

'Ink' for 3-D printers

One of the areas in which Sandia hopes UA can make a major contribution is in the field of advanced, micro 3-D printing. Sandia works with the most advanced 3-D printers in the world.

"We've now evolved to the point that we do manufacturing on an atomic scale," Valley said.

Sandia knows how to make things like tiny sensors, which could be employed in fuel cells or other energy applications, or tiny devices that could be inserted into the human body, where they could more effectively deliver drugs directly into the patient's blood.

Sandia has the printers, what it needs now is the ink, or the materials that can perform as designed and survive in harsh environments, or not poison their human hosts. Valley and others at the lab think polymers can solve those problems.

"That's a big area we're looking to team with the University of Akron on ... to develop ink for that magic pen. And then it will do things we can't even imagine now," Valley said.

If Sandia is right, then it and UA will produce new materials and inventions and sell or license that technology in the private sector. Ultimately, it could mean a host of new products used in health care and energy production and management. It also could lead to sensors that monitor the nation's infrastructure — or even sensors used in cars, fuel cells and other products.

If they're successful, both Sandia and the university will share in the proceeds gained from commercializing new technologies, as spelled out in their Sept. 19 master research agreement.

UA eager to collaborate

If anyone is more excited about the partnership than Valley and his Sandia coworkers, it might be Dr. Eric Amis, vice provost of research and dean of the College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering.

"(Sandia) played an important role in the Manhattan Project and all that, and their mission in terms of nuclear security and stockpile stewardship is core to Sandia, but the number of other things they do is amazing," Amis said. "They view themselves as the nation's engineering lab. On anything that they put their mind to doing, I would not want to compete with them. I'd prefer to collaborate."

Amis shares Sandia's enthusiasm because he said polymers are ideally suited to many of the applications the lab targets. Polymers can outperform ceramics, metals and other materials in many respects, such as withstanding temperature changes and exposure to chemicals, or not reacting to other materials around them, depending on how they're engineered.

"With polymers, you can go all the way from something that behaves like a hard plastic pipe to thin flexible films — and it's the same polymer," Amis said.

In addition to working on new materials for micro 3-D printing, Amis also is excited to work with Sandia on new "continuous roll" manufacturing methods. That could mean that things like solar panels, which are now produced one at a time, could be produced in continuous processes and even rolled up, the way that plastic films or other materials are.

Amis already has been to Sandia to present an overview of his university's work in polymer science, and scientists will be going back and forth between the school and Sandia in the future, Valley said.

Amis said he's been impressed with the breadth of work in which Sandia is involved. He's also looking forward to getting from the lab something he always looks for in relationships with other researchers or industries — application challenges.

Academic researchers often know more than anyone about their fields of expertise, but they need others to present to them specific applications for their science, Amis said.

Now he and other researchers at the University of Akron will have such challenges.

"In my mind, we get to do the fun stuff now," Amis said.

More information

• College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering
• News: Knight Foundation creates $3 million endowment for polymer research

Editor's note: Article was republished with permission by Crain's. See article on Crain's site.