Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

Pin-Kuang Lai, an assistant professor in Stevens’ Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, has received a $150,000 funding award from Janssen Research & Development for one year to develop computational tools to predict the concentration-dependent viscosity behavior of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs).

The project, titled “Next generation viscosity prediction for molecular liability reduction and multi-parameter optimization development,” aims to address the challenge of unpredictable viscosity behavior early in the mAbs development process. High viscosity in mAbs complicates subcutaneous (under the skin) administration and is difficult to identify early due to limited material availability.

Lai and his team at Stevens will establish a machine learning-based program and coarse-grained models to predict viscosity using in-silico and empirical biophysical parameters. The empirical biophysical parameters will be measured at low concentrations in a high-throughput manner.

Janssen Research & Development is the research-and-development arm of Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a company within Johnson & Johnson that focuses on discovering and developing new medicines and healthcare solutions, particularly in areas such as oncology, immunology, neuroscience and cardiopulmonary disease. Janssen R&D will provide experimental data for model development and validation.

Jae Chul Kim, an assistant professor in Stevens’ Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, is part of an international consortium, including POSCO Future M and POSTECH, on research into extending the life of lithium-ion batteries. POSCO Future M is a battery material and chemical company, and POSTECH is a top-tier research institution, both of which are located in Pohang, South Korea. The consortium received $2.2 million in funding from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of South Korea, with Kim securing $411,000 as a principal investigator.

Currently, more than half of the cathodes – a key component to increasing energy density – in lithium-ion batteries are made from lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (NCM). However, NCM particles in the cathodes are prone to microcracks resulting from rapid volume changes during phase transitions at high voltage, especially for compositions with large nickel content.

The project aims to provide an extensive evaluation model of the morphological evolution of the NCM cathode. The group will utilize X-ray diffraction methods to monitor the evolution of phase transitions and cryogenic electron microscopy to analyze the mechanical properties of NCM particles during the cracking process.

The group believes the results obtained from this study will contribute to a deeper understanding of the electrochemical and mechanical correlation of the NCM cathodes, promoting a more sustainable long-term energy storage solution with high energy density.

Professors Henry Du (Chemical Engineering and Materials Science) and Yuping Huang (Physics) have been tapped by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to join a multi-university effort to detect and degrade PFA and PFO chemicals in new ways that could cost less — and require far less energy consumption.

PFAS and PFOS ("forever chemicals") are harmful compounds incorporated in industrial and consumer products that have infiltrated food and water supplies, posing serious threats to human health. Some of these chemicals can persist for decades or more in the environment, and studies suggest they may cause or exacerbate cancer, liver damage, fertility issues and a host of other health conditions.

Stevens’ role will be to leverage technologies from its quantum and materials science labs to co-develop innovative detection platforms and novel filtering systems with the partner universities’ teams.

The group’s proposed SENSE-PFAS system will include a suite of technologies. Specially designed and functionalized silver nanoparticles provide sites for robust adsorption and sensitive detection of PFAS chemicals.

Once detected, the next challenge will be to render PFAS safer for disposal. Certain graphene- and iron-based nanocompounds, printed into super-thin layers of sheets, have recently demonstrated to help degrade PFAS into fluoride, acetate and other less harmful substances by breaking apart the PFAS chemicals’ strong carbon-fluorine bonds through catalytic reactions.

Jacob Gissinger, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, has received a $205,761 grant from NASA to help equipment on space missions better stand up to the stresses of space travel.

Gissinger and his team will work on predictive models to estimate how certain carbon-based resins can transform into graphite-like materials when exposed to extreme temperature. The project, titled “Predicting Graphitzability of High-Temperature Resins,” will use detailed computer modeling instead of the more time-consuming and expensive product testing.

The team’s model will simulate real-life manufacturing processes to study the chemical structure of resins. They will test methods for transforming the resin into graphite-like structures and test their virtual lab test results against real data, with the ultimate goal of improving how resins are made.

A successful computer model could also reveal design truths that then become rules of thumb for materials development, such as identifying a universal additive that could control graphitizability in high-temperature resins without sacrificing other important properties.

Gissinger and his team will work with NASA Langley Research Center, where they have access to the ultra-high-temperature furnaces and other equipment needed to test these materials under extreme conditions.