Troy University researcher Dr. Aboulfaz Barati has received an approximately $249,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to explore how materials recovered from waste can be redesigned to help plants survive drought.

The project, titled “Architected Tolerant Superabsorbent Platforms Derived from Heterogeneous Waste Streams for Water-Resilient Seedling Establishment,” aims to not only show that a recycled material can absorb water, but to understand how the internal structures control the ability to store, transport and release water under realistic conditions like soil pressure, variable water availability and dissolved salts.

“Many disposable products contain materials that are designed to absorb and retain large amounts of water. After use, these materials typically become waste,” Barati said. “The project asks a simple question: can we recover these materials from waste and redesign them into engineered structures that store water and release it where plants need it?”

Water availability is a significant challenge for agriculture, particularly during seedling establishment when young plants are vulnerable to drought. At the same time, large quantities of potentially useful polymer and fiber materials are discarded as waste.

Barati’s research aims to connect those two challenges by exploring whether materials that would otherwise enter the waste stream can instead be developed into functional water-management materials for agriculture.

“The exciting part for me is that the project connects two problems—material waste and water scarcity—and asks whether one can become part of the solution to the other,” he said.

Funded through the NSF EPSCoR Research Fellows program and a collaboration with Auburn University (Dr. Bryan Beckham), the grant also expands research capabilities in soft materials, polymer transport and water-responsive materials. Undergraduate students will participate directly in the research, gaining experience in polymer science, materials characterization, experimental design and sustainability-focused engineering research.

“An important outcome of this award is bringing new research capabilities back to TROY and putting those capabilities directly into the hands of our undergraduate students,” Barati said.

Barati is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Troy University. His research background includes polymer science and engineering, recycling and sustainability and process-structure-property relationships. His current research focuses on developing new methods for recycling and upcycling of polymer materials at TROY’s Center for Materials and Manufacturing Sciences.