US Patent Issued to Marquette University on March 4 for "Materials based on natural pollen grains and uses thereof" (Wisconsin Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,239,948, issued on March 4, was assigned to Marquette University (Milwaukee).

"Materials based on natural pollen grains and uses thereof" was invented by Chieu D. Tran (Fox Point, Wis.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Disclosed herein are methods for preparing sporopollenin exine capsules (SECs) and methods for preparing composite materials that comprise SECs that utilize ionic liquid compositions. The composite materials typically include structural polymers and the SECs, and the SECs optionally may encapsulate useful materials, such as flame retardant materials, phase change materials, and therapeutic materials, such as probiotics and pr...