First you invent, then you learn.

Dr. Ashok Cholli has been busy learning about antioxidant additives in the industrial world.
That’s because Cholli has invented a high performance antioxidant – one that outperforms and outlasts anything currently being used. It gives higher protection at lower cost when applied to a variety of materials we use every day. And, best of all, it’s produced on principles of green chemistry, so the process is eco-friendly from the very beginning.

Dr. Ashok Cholli, inventor of the highly versatile antioxidant Polnox® and chief technology officer of Polnox Corporation, surveys the company’s new lab space. By independent test, Polnox dramatically outperforms currently used antioxidant additives in plastics, fuels and foods. Marketing of the new product is targeted to Fortune 100 companies.

The name of this super little macromolecule is Polnox®, named by Cholli’s sons (in middle school and high school) through combining "polymer" and "no oxidation."

Polnox Corporation is the name of the company, soon to move into new lab space in the IPI building. Major funding to the company comes from Navigator Technology Ventures, the venture capital arm of Draper Labs. Cholli is chief technology officer and a member of the board of directors. He conducted the research in UMass Lowell’s Center for Advanced Materials and the University retains an interest in the company.

"Our goal is to be in the market with at least one product within 12 months," says Cholli. "We have scaled up from the milligram level to the multi-kilogram level and are ready to commercialize new products. Polnox is planning to bring seven key products into the market."

Polnox is targeting three areas of industrial applications of anti-oxidants: 1) polymers, including elastomers, plastics and packaging; 2) oils and lubricants, including additives to auto and aviation fuels; and 3) foods, such as cooking oils, packaged foods, dairy and cosmetics.

How big is the market for these various industrial material applications? In 2004, the U.S. market for antioxidants topped $1.8 billion. Those of us who think of antioxidants only in terms of fresh fruits or fish oils in our diets are missing a whole world of applications.

“Antioxidants act to mop up and neutralize harmful free radicals,” explains Cholli. “They prevent material degradation from oxygen, high temperature, light, radiation, smoke and enzymes. They are sacrificial – they are used up as they scavenge and deactivate the free radicals.”

Cholli has been learning a lot about market applications for antioxidants.

The shelf life of foods, for example, depends on the oxidation process; most cereals and other packaged foods have been sprayed with an antioxidant. A 10-degree rise in temperature doubles the rate of oxidation, leading to rancidity in half the time. Polnox was twice as effective as other products at maintaining quality when heated. So, a producer could either extend and preserve the period of high quality, or choose to maintain the same shelf life with less antioxidant using Polnox’s antioxidants.

In lubricants and fuels, which are typically exposed to high temperatures, added antioxidants account for one to five percent of volume and prevent excess viscosity. Polnox test performance is 4,000 percent more effective than currently used petroleum-based or synthetic lubricant oils.

More than 50 billion pounds of polyolefin plastics are produced each year.

"Every pound of that has to have added antioxidant," says Cholli. "That’s just the raw material: then more antioxidant has to be added to sustain the material during the molding process." Polnox prevents the common problems of material degradation, brittleness and yellowing – improving the useful life of finished products.

All the testing was done by independent test agencies. No matter how much he learns, Cholli says, he and his colleagues “are not expert in all fields.”

Polnox’s antioxidants have to be tested for toxicity in food applications, but Cholli is especially proud that Polnox is produced without toxins.

"Our processes are eco-friendly," he says. "We use biocatalysts and other materials to make the reaction, we use water for washing and there is less wastage. It is green chemistry at work."

Cholli credits Prof. Jayant Kumar and the late Prof. Sukant Tripathy of the Center for Advanced Materials, for their development of enzymatic synthesis. UMass Lowell Chancellor William Hogan provided early stage seed money and the Office of Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property has fostered the project through the formation of the company.

Polnox has had a very positive reception from the scientific and industrial community; the company’s scientific advisory board includes Alan MacDiarmid, 2000 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. The company has six employees already and is working with several Fortune 100 companies in beta site evaluations.

"We plan to compete both in commodity and niche markets," says Cholli. "We think of Polnox as the ‘next generation’ of antioxidants."