**AWARDS ISSUED PRIOR TO JANUARY 20, 2025, WERE FUNDED UNDER PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATIONS AND MAY NOT REFLECT THE PRIORITIES AND POLICIES OF THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION.** CURRENT ISSUELIGNIN IS A POLYMER FOUND IN THE PLANT CELL WALL THAT IS A COPRODUCT OF PAPER MANUFACTURING AND HAS LITTLE VALUE AND FEW COMMERCIAL USES. IT HAS A HIGH CARBON DENSITY RELATIVE TO OTHER PLANT POLYMERS AND IS BURNED FOR PROCESS ENERGY. HOWEVER, COMBUSTION PROCESSES RELEASE CARBON DIOXIDE INTO THE ATMOSPHERE AND CONTRIBUTE TO GLOBAL WARMING. ACTIVATED CARBON CAN CAPTURE CARBON DIOXIDE, BUT IT IS USUALLY INEFFECTIVE IN A POWDER STATE AS IT TENDS TO HIGH PRESSURES AND CLOGGING. ALTERNATIVELY, ACTIVATED CARBON FIBERS PROMISE IMPROVED FILTRATION ABILITY WITH LITTLE PRESSURE DROP IN GAS AND LIQUID APPLICATIONS, BUT FOSSIL BASED CARBON FIBERS ARE COSTLY AND NONRENEWABLE. TO THIS DATE, IGNIN'S COMMERCIAL USE IN CARBON FIBER IS HAMPERED BY ITS POOR MECHANICAL PERFORMANCE IN STRUCTURAL APPLICATIONS.APPROACH: WE WILL PROVIDE A SOLUTION TO CAPTURING CARBON DIOXIDE BY DEVELOPING NONWOVEN CARBON FIBER FILTER MATERIALS FROM LIGNIN. THESE FIBERS WILL BE EXTREMELY SMALL IN DIAMETER AND HAVE HIGH SURFACE AREA FOR CAPTURING AS MUCH CARBON DIOXIDE AS POSSIBLE. THIS WILL ALSO ALLOW FOR THE FLOW OF GASES THROUGH A HIGHLY PERMEABLE MEMBRANE. ADDITIONALLY, WE WILL USE THE LIGNIN TO CREATE GRAPHITIC NANOPARTICLES FROM THE LIGNIN WITH TUNED CHEMICAL FUNCTIONALITY, CALLED CARBON QUANTUM DOTS (CQD). THESE PARTICLES WILL ACT LIKE TINY MAGNETS FIXED TO THE SURFACE OF THE FIBERS THAT WILL SELECTIVELY BIND CARBON DIOXIDE OVER OTHER MOLECULES COMMONLY FOUND IN COMBUSTION GAS STREAMS. THE CARBON DIOXIDE CAN THEN BE FLUSHED FROM THE SURFACE AND STORED FOR OTHER USES. WE WILL TUNE THE BINDING ABILITY OF THE CARBON SURFACES BY USING A COMBINATION OF COMPUTATIONAL MODELING THAT WILL BE INFORMED BY EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND MACHINE LEARNING TO EXPEDITE MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT. THIS ITERATIVE MODELING-EXPERIMENTAL METHODOLOGY WILL BE TAUGHT TO UNDERGRADUATE SENIOR DESIGN STUDENTS AND STUDENT INTERNS. THE STUDENTS WILL UNDERSTAND THE PROCESSING, STRUCTURE, PROPERTY, PERFORMANCE (PSPP) RELATIONSHIP THAT GOES INTO MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT FROM THE NANOSCALE TO THE END PRODUCT PERFORMANCE.OUTCOMES: THIS RESEARCH WILL HAVE THREE MAIN OUTCOMES: 1) HIGH VALUE USES FOR LIGNIN; 2) PROVIDE A SUSTAINABLE AND ELEGANT SOLUTION FOR CARBON DIOXIDE CAPTURE; 3) TRAIN A NEW GENERATION OF STUDENTS IN THE RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF BIOBASED MATERIALS FROM LIGNOCELLULOSICS.