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Julia A. Kornfield and showed her photos from the test indicating that the plane’s plastic windows remained intact after the fire. That prompted Kornfield to begin exploring mistADDITIVES: Telechelic polymers controlling polymers herself. control fuel mist and fire risk The problem with the polymers used in 1984, Kornfield explains, is that they interfered with engine operNEW TYPE of polymer fuel additive could reduce ation. What’s more, these long polythe chances of an airplane erupting into a deadly mers broke apart while being pumped fireball after a crash. The additive is composed into the plane and lost their mist-controlling properties. of telechelic polymers—polymer chains that reversibly Kornfield’s group used a theoretical model to design link together through their end groups. They have been polymer additives that would reassemble if sheared shown, at concentrations of 0.3 wt %, to control highly apart. The researchers then spent four years trying to flammable fuel mist, preventing explosions of jet fuel synthesize them. The telechelic polymers they finally without interfering with normal engine operation. made have either dibasic or diacidic end groups, which stick to each other like Velcro (Science N N 2015, DOI: 10.1126/science.aab0642). N R N R “The end groups that work the best n R= O are also the simplest,” Kornfield says. Telechelic polymers N “They’re simply carboxylic acid groups N as the hydrogen-bond donors and JUST ADD POLYMER Kornfield’s telechelic N N tertiary amines as the hydrogen-bond polymers have diacidic or dibasic end groups that Dibase acceptors.” can form hydrogen bonds. O “In my mind the most impressive asOH In 1977, two jumbo jets collided on an airport pect of the work was the choice and inrunway in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. The retroduction of the end groups into their O sulting fire killed 583 people. The accident promptlong telechelic polymers,” comments OH ed scientists to look for ways to make jet fuel safer. Mitchell A. Winnik, a polymer science O Because jet fuel mist is far more flammable than expert at the University of Toronto. The Diacid bulk fuel, researchers reasoned that mist-controlend groups make the molecules link up ling polymers could improve safety. Initial efforts were into long linear chains. Also, he says, they seem relatively deemed a failure, however, when in a 1984 field test, a simple to make. remotely piloted jet carrying a mist-controlling additive Kornfield estimates it will take several years for burst into flames after a crash. the additives to be approved for use in jet fuel. In the Virendra Sarohia, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulmeantime, she says, they have other benefits: In diesel sion Laboratory, had been part of the research project fuel, they reduce soot formation in the engine, and they and felt that, despite the fire, not all was lost. In 2002, reduce pumping costs and increase throughput when he approached Caltech chemical engineering professor added to fuel in pipelines.—BETHANY HALFORD
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New mistcontrolling polymers could cut down on explosions associated with fuel in airplane crashes.
CARBON CAPTURE Teams from around the world will compete for $20 million prize A new competition will award $20 million for carbon capture technologies that convert carbon dioxide into highvalue products. NRG, a U.S.-based energy provider, and Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA), a group of 13 oil sands producers, are sponsoring the award. The contest is being organized by the XPrize Foundation, which awarded its first prize in 2005 for suborbital spaceflight. Its most recent prize, awarded in July, was a total of $2 million for three teams that developed sensors to track
ocean acidification. The foundation says its competitions are open to teams of “scientists, engineers, academics, entrepreneurs, and other innovators with new ideas from all over the world.” The NRG COSIA Carbon XPrize will award original solutions for converting CO2 from power plant emissions into products such as building materials, polymers, and low-carbon-footprint fuels, according to XPrize. The contest will have two tracks focused on waste CO2 from coal-fired and natural-gas-fired power plants.
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The prize should help put waste CO2 in a new, more favorable light, says Peter Styring, director of the U.K. Centre for Carbon Dioxide Utilization at the University of Sheffield, in England. “It’s a good way of getting the idea out there and will get people thinking; $20 million is not to be sneezed at,” he says. Styring plans to compete for the prize with a technology to convert CO2 into fertilizer. Teams will have until June 2016 to register for the competition; winners will be announced in March 2020.—MELODY BOMGARDNER
STANISLAW TOKARSKI/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
MAKING JET FUEL SAFER
