Bret Chisholm, director of NDSU’s Combinatorial Materials Research Lab in the Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering, and Chad Ulven, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, have been awarded a multi-year $395,000 research grant from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, a combat support agency of the U.S. Department of Defense.

Research conducted by Chisholm and Ulven will explore transparent materials that absorb the force or energy of strong impacts. Their proposal is titled “An Investigation of Polycarbonate/Polysiloxane Multiblock Copolymers Produced Using Hydrosilylation Coupling Chemistry.”

Polycarbonate has been used as a thermoplastic that is transparent with high impact resistance, used for many things such as bullet-proof glass and canopies for military jets. However, the material also shows a tendency to undergo brittle failure in notched impact tests. The objective of Chisholm and Ulven’s research is to develop extensive structure-property relationships for polycarbonate-polysiloxane multiblock copolymers using a novel synthetic method that will allow precise control over block copolymer architecture. The structure-property relationships obtained as a result of the proposed research will enable the design of novel impact-resistant materials. The project will be a joint effort with NDSU and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

Chisholm holds 25 U.S. patents and has written more than 100 publications. He earned a doctorate in polymer science from the University of Southern Mississippi and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from NDSU. He was employed by General Electric for 11 years before joining NDSU in 2004.

Ulven earned a doctorate and a master’s degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a bachelor’s degree from NDSU. He joined the faculty at NDSU in 2005. In 2007-08, Ulven received the Researcher of the Year Award from the College of Engineering and Architecture.