To those interested in high-end bicycles or sporting goods, carbon fiber may sound familiar, but it is relied on for myriad applications far beyond exercise and recreation. A composite of materials made from latticed carbon atoms, carbon fiber is known for its strength, rigidity and light weight. In fact, it is because of this unique combination of strength and low weight that carbon fiber underpins vital domestic supply chains for aerospace, transportation, energy, defense and other advanced manufacturing sectors. Expanding its use depends on making carbon fiber production faster, more efficient and more affordable.
The initial challenge of producing carbon fiber more efficiently, effectively and affordably — thus making it more attractive for multiple industries — is one that entrepreneur Evan Stacy, founder and CEO of Lumios Materials, is eager to tackle. To help him do so, Innovation Crossroads, a Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship program at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has partnered Stacy and Lumios with ORNL's internationally recognized carbon fiber researchers and capabilities. This exchange is a potent example of how Innovation Crossroads helps U.S. industries solve complex manufacturing and commercialization challenges.
“Innovation Crossroads has been instrumental in the success of Lumios as an early-stage startup,” Stacy said. “The access to elite mentorship and a strong network of previous founders who are still engaged with the program has allowed me to learn from the experience of successful participants in the challenging world of hard-tech entrepreneurship.”
Hooked since his first pair of carbon fiber soccer cleats in middle school, Stacy initially loved the material’s flashy look but eventually grew to appreciate its performance benefits. This led to a fascination with carbon fiber’s use in other sporting goods and later, in cars.
“In graduate school, I became even more interested in carbon fiber because it represents the full spectrum of polymer science,” Stacy said. “Manufacturing carbon fiber requires a strong understanding of the relationship between chemistry and processing to create high-performance materials.”
Drawn to the University of Southern Mississippi’s (USM’s) School of Polymer Science & Engineering via its established connections with Hanover College, where he studied Chemistry as an undergrad, Stacy noticed a gap in carbon fiber production and soon sought a technological solution with marketplace impact potential. At USM, he researched light-based approaches to creating polymers — important precursors for carbon fiber production comprised of chemically bonded, chained molecules called monomers.
When his work outgrew what he could accomplish at USM, Stacy reached out to potential collaborators with the equipment and facilities he knew he’d require to advance his technology. This academic search led him to Amit Naskar, leader of ORNL’s Carbon and Composites Group, who recommended the Innovation Crossroads program, which Stacy joined as part of the 2025 Cohort.
With Naskar’s help, Stacy is rethinking a challenging first step in the carbon fiber production process, one that has limited broader industrial adoption because of production cost and manufacturing complexity: how to build strong, consistent fibers, quickly, precisely and affordably. With this new approach via Lumios, Stacy hopes to make carbon fiber production easier, safer and more practical for a range of industrial applications.
Advanced chemistry, inspired by light
Lumios — derived from a Latin word for light — uses LED-light-driven chemistry to streamline carbon fiber production. With this novel approach, the Lumios technique should eliminate the bottleneck at step one of carbon fiber production, which, according to Stacy, could be the key to broader, multi-industry carbon fiber adoption, domestically and even globally.
The tricky first step in production typically begins with producing a precursor polymer called polyacrylonitrile (PAN), which is basically a type of plastic resin. That precursor is then dissolved into a liquid, and through a process called extrusion, the PAN is manipulated, spun and stretched into hardened fibers for further use. However, the first step of precursor production requires a catalyst, and current techniques rely on outdated, inefficient chemistries. Alternatively, Stacy and Naskar arrive at their catalyst with light.
Rather than traditional, solvent-based catalysts that can be toxic and face purification challenges, the Lumios technique employs LED light to catalyze polymer synthesis via a process called photo-regulated innovation of structural materials. It builds on an established process called photoiniferter polymerization, which uses ultraviolet light exposure to convert liquid monomers into solid polymers.
To address the critical need for high-performance carbon fiber precursors, Lumios’s high-quality, scalable solution will attract industries due to its lower cost and safer production model, which uses its innovative polymerization process for PAN synthesis.
“Evan’s new synthesis protocol for PAN, a well-known carbon fiber precursor, is yielding a high-molecular-weight yet easy-to-process polymer,” Naskar said. “With increases in molecular weight, polymer solubility and solution processing become difficult due to the high viscosity of the resulting solution. Informed by ORNL’s capabilities and historic knowledge base in carbon fiber manufacturing, Evan’s approach addresses this challenge and aims to deliver a high-throughput fiber manufacturing route for his products.”
Thus far, via Lumios, Stacy and his team have demonstrated lab-scale synthesis of this precursor in 500-gram-sized batches with reproducible results. He hopes to scale the process to industrial manufacturing levels of up to 100x, by developing a pilot-scale reactor to produce 50-kilogram batches, allowing for far larger, more efficient processing runs.
“Within its Physical Sciences Directorate, ORNL has provided us with access to a pilot-scale production line for precursor synthesis, fiber spinning and carbonization under the mentorship of Dr. Naskar, along with access to the necessary equipment,” Stacy said. “Demonstrating that we can effectively process that new material into high-performance carbon fiber is where our technology establishes itself in a class of its own. The in-house expertise provided by fellow scientists allows us to scale at a much quicker pace than starting out on our own.”
A national leader in carbon fiber research for decades, ORNL is also home to the Department of Energy’s Carbon Fiber Technology Facility (CFTF), the nation’s only scientific research facility dedicated to carbon fiber innovation and production.
The lengthy material qualification process required by aerospace supply chains makes that market a longer-term goal for Stacy. For now, Lumios will begin by offering higher-quality, lower-cost materials to sporting goods manufacturers…with an eye on the sky.
Stacy’s fellowship is supported by DOE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO). Innovation Crossroads is funded by AMMTO, DOE’s Building Technologies Office, the DOE Office of Science Basic Energy Sciences program and the Tennessee Valley Authority. LEEP is managed by DOE’s Office of Technology Commercialization.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. — Chris Driver
