SBIR Phase II: Bio-based polymers for optical applications

The broader impact/commercial potential of this SBIR Phase II project is to deliver a bio-based and functionally improved optical polymer that can be made into a lens. The lens product has commercial applications in rapidly growing mass-markets like Prescription eyewear that is growing significantly due to onslaught of myopia. Using scientific data, this proposal demonstrates an improved commercial product for myopia when compared to Polycarbonate, the most popular eyewear material in US. Work proposed in Phase II focuses on development of the polymer at large scale and its conversion to lenses using a lower-cost, one-step molding process that can also reduce current industry wastages by as much as an estimated 90%. For establishing suitability of the product towards commercial applications, the Phase II goals include product testing in lab as well as with real subjects to generate marketable data. Finished prescription lenses are a ~$30 billion plus market, with ~70% of lens sales serving myopic patients, who will see a tremendous benefit from using our ultra-clear lens. Broader impact of this technology proposal is to make eyeglasses exponentially more affordable in contrast to today's high costs. Price controls exerted by market monopolies like Luxottica and Essilor on finished lenses pose a huge barrier to base of pyramid markets. Our easy-to-make lens technology simplifies the eyewear supply chain for benefit of these unconventional markets and can lower costs dramatically for billions of people around the world, who are separated by a pair of glasses from otherwise blindness. This SBIR Phase II project proposes to leverage properties of sugars to build an optically clear, transparent polymer of good refractive index, low dispersion and low density. In commercial applications of this polymer as a prescription lens, it thus represents a state-of-the-art product that combines the best properties of various incumbent eyewear materials into one. A key intellectual merit of this SBIR project is to achieve a plastic with optical properties similar to glass, a gold standard in optical materials. Our chemistry platform is 90% bio-based, a unique value proposition in prescription lens industry, where use of extremely toxic and hazardous chemicals is common. Phase I work has also led to the development of a novel route of manufacturing lenses which can lower cost barriers for setting up optical labs, expedite the process for making prescription lenses and cut wastages in current prescription industry. In Phase II, our goal is to methodically develop the process for making lenses using Novol's polymers and obtain data to translate the proposed technology to a commercially preferred lens product with special benefits to myopic patients. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.