Corrosion engineering professor receives prestigious CAREER award
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program supports the early development of non-tenured professors and aims to develop their careers as researchers and educators.
Dr. Qixin Zhou, assistant professor, Department of Chemical, Biomolecular, and Corrosion Engineering, recently received the CAREER award for her work developing an environmentally friendly coating for metals.
She received total funding of $500,000 for her five-year project. This year's awardees hail from 193 institutions across 47 U.S. states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
Coatings are everywhere. From screws or bolts to patio furniture and everything in between, coatings are essential to increase the durability of products across all industries, such as consumer goods, transportation, and manufacturing. Dr. Zhou’s coatings would be used on metal to provide protection from corrosion.
There has been growing interest shown by researchers and environmental agencies to find alternative “green processes” for urethane-related coatings that can reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous and toxic isocyanates – a chemical that has environmental, health, and safety-related issues. Currently, some green coatings—including waterborne, powder, high-solids solvent-based, and radiation-cure coatings—are on the market; however, a polyurethane coating produced from a non-isocyanate process that is durable is still in the research stage.
“There are many steps required to take raw renewable materials and synthesize for a polyurethane coating that doesn’t rely on the toxic isocyanates,” says Dr. Zhou. “My dream is to have this green polyurethane coating be competitive with commercially available polyurethane coatings currently on the market.”
Dr. Zhou joins fellow engineering faculty, Dr. Rajeev Gupta, as an award recipient.
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