Prof. Jong Hwan SEO (School of Mechanical Engineering) and his research team won a research project from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), an affiliated organization of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

This is the first time for SKKU to obtain a research project at US Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the team will receive a research fund, $100,000 US dollar every year.

The project is about development of eco-friendly artificial cork material by using natural materials. Cork as largely known as a cap of wine bottle, is a porous material that is mostly collected from quercus suber living in the shores of the Mediterranean. It has special physical properties: (1) lightweight (2) reverts to its original shape even after compression, and (3) absorbs a large amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Cork’s unique and superior material properties are attributed to the cork’s special porous structure as well its chemical structure. In particular, cork’s excellent permeability and elasticity are exhibited due to the hydrophobic lipid called Suberin. Based on this fact, Prof. Jong Hwan SEO and his team proposed a research to synthesize eco-friendly materials with uniform physical properties by selectively extracting and recombining cork’s Suberin.

“This study will be a cornerstone for the sustainable development of environmentally friendly materials that can be used in various engineering fields beyond the limits of application of existing natural materials,” said Prof. SEO.