Advanced Materials

You spend most of your life in buildings, but how often do stop to consider the environmental impact of those buildings?  The materials used in our buildings cause 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and much of this comes from concrete and other hard surfaces. Architects are increasingly switching over to more sustainable material options, and the green construction market has grown to over $110BN with a 12% CAGR.  However, low-embodied carbon options for concrete-like materials remain limited.

The composite industries have thrived towards sustainability by leveraging the materials strength vs weight to reduce emissions from trains, planes, boats and vehicles. But in the process they generated a large volume of landfill materials from their post industrial excess of technical fibers. in carbon fiber alone, the excess is estimated at 42 thousand metric tons per year. That is about 92.6 million lbs a year of lost resources and supplies at an estimated value > $1B per year.

Our goal is to create better batteries for electric vehicles using cheaper, domestically-available materials. This will involve commercializing a new aluminum-based foil anode technology, which will enable the manufacturing of batteries with higher energy density, longer cycle life, and improved safety compared to the state of the art. This technology has better performance, lower manufacturing costs, and enhanced materials sustainability compared to other battery technologies.  The battery market is rapidly growing in the US due to the enormous demand for electric vehicle production.

High-performance lightweight composites, once reserved for aerospace, racing, and high-performance sports, have failed to penetrate mass-market applications due to high production costs, slow manufacturing speeds, and low scalability. As a result, mass-market manufacturers are constrained to using inexpensive, heavily reinforced metals or plastics. These materials are heavier, bulkier, prone to corrosion, and limit design flexibility, driving inefficiencies across industries.  The reliance on these sub-optimal materials compounds problems: 

Purifica was formed to commercialize cutting-edge nanotechnology developed at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. Our advanced material is specifically designed to tackle two critical environmental challenges: phosphorus (P) and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination. These pollutants pose significant risks to water quality, ecosystems, and public health, particularly in rural and manufacturing areas.  

Founded and based in RTP, NC by two female co-founders. Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes based on polyamides continue to dominate the market after 40 years because there are no better alternatives. Today, RO is being applied to new alternative water sources, such as wastewater, to solve the issue of water scarcity. Polyamide RO membranes are known to foul (clog) and fail as a result of biofouling because effective disinfectants like chlorine (bleach) are incompatible with polyamides.

Minus Filtration is dedicated to revolutionizing water treatment through our proprietary nanofiltration membrane technology. Our long-term goal is to develop comprehensive ""minus"" approach systems that treat water without the use of chemicals or additives, thereby eliminating byproducts and adverse health effects associated with traditional methods.   

Lepidext has a new solution to an old problem of controlling the corn earworm (CEW) and old world bollworm (OWB) pest complex.  These two insects are considered the most important pests of agriculture costing annual damage and cost of control of $7-10 B globally.  They are pests of dozens of food and fiber crops, are resistant to many insecticides including several of the pesticides expressed in genetically engineered crops such as corn, cotton and soybeans.

HAND Technologies, LLC (HAND) is a custom materials company founded upon extreme performance materials discovered at Mississippi State University (MSU). Our startup is committed to expanding the high-performance materials options available to the U.S. aerospace market, starting with one materials platform at a time.   We are currently commercializing a platform of BODA-derived resins (BDR) to help solve a staggering production limitation plaguing the carbon/carbon (C/C) composites industry.

Over 1 million people in the United States every year receive surgical treatment for meniscus injuries due to their painful and debilitating symptoms. Most meniscus tears are treated with a meniscectomy (removal of the damaged tissue) since the meniscus has extremely limited healing capabilities. The removal of tissue increases the forces exerted on the knee joint cartilage, which can create recurring pain, mechanical impairment/immobility, and degenerative changes much earlier than if the meniscus was intact and protecting the cartilage.