Chicken feather fibers and soybean polymers lie at the heart and "sole" of the prototype eco-shoes developed by a UD undergraduate research team. The team's innovative eco-friendly clothing and footwear earned the 2011 Youth Council on Sustainable Science and Technology (YCOSST) P3 design award given by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers' (AIChE) Institute for Sustainability.
The team included Paula Bonanno, Jillian Kramer and Stacey Lipschitz from fashion and apparel studies — all University Honors Program students — and Quan Dan from chemical engineering.
Huantian Cao, associate professor in fashion and apparel studies, and Richard P. Wool, chemical engineering professor and director of the Affordable Composites from Renewable Sources (ACRES) program at UD, advised the group with help from chemical engineering graduate student Mingjiang Zhan.
While interdisciplinary work between chemical engineering and fashion might seem like a stretch, Wool said it is potentially the most beneficial ACRES collaboration to date.
"Using biobased foam in place of toxic polyurethanes couldrevolutionize the high-polluting leather industry. It could also lead to new multidisciplinary graduate degrees between chemical engineering and fashion," he said.
The project is funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's P3 program, a national student design competition for sustainability focusing on people, prosperity and the planet.