A DeKalb County native is being recognized nationally for his work on finding alternative green resources for the production of common everyday items. His current work is focused on the production of nylon and finding alternatives to an element that may be extinct within the next century.

Smithville’s own Dr. Brian Agee is a lecturer and professor at Augusta University, and along with his undergraduate research student Amina Aly, they have found a way to substitute iron for zinc in the production of a widely used form of nylon. Agee is the son of Jimmy and Caroline Agee and graduated from DeKalb County High School in 2002.

Nylon 6-6 is a durable polymer that is used in everything from tire reinforcements to stadium seating and even Army parachutes. 

“One of the ways to make that type of nylon requires that you use zinc to produce one of the starting compounds to get the actual nylon,” Dr. Agee told the Smithville Review. “According to the American Chemical Society, there are several naturally occurring elements that are endangered, and zinc is one of them. They estimated that within 50 to 100 years it could be extinct. Gold, copper, and even helium are also on the list.”

According to Dr. Agee, using iron, a widely available resource, produces very similar nylon to the traditional zinc production. “We’re working right now on making nylon with iron and it works really well. Iron is not endangered at all. We’ve found that in comparison to zinc, iron works pretty much the same as far as what we need.”

“We’re also working on using rust, but we haven’t mapped it out just yet,” Dr. Agee continued. “Even if the industry doesn’t use it right now, it may be a better route for them, because if you can use rust, what better thing could you use? There’s rust everywhere.”

Dr. Agee is a green organic chemist, meaning he studies alternative resources and production methods that are more environmentally friendly. “That is basically the study of carbon,” Dr. Agee explained. “Anytime you’re dealing with things like pharmaceuticals, and making of medicines, and nylon can fall into this, I try to alter their pathway. I try to make things without using electricity of fossil fuels, and by using natural sources.”

The method Dr. Agee and Aly used to produce the nylon is also considered environmentally friendly. “We heated all our reactions using the sun, using a solar reflector. Eventually down the line, there’s going to come a point where on this planet we’re going to start running out of resources. We need to start planning ahead and trying to develop alternate ways of making the things that we use every single day. Fossil fuels are going to be gone someday.”

According Dr. Agee, their methods can be scaled up easily for manufacturing on an industrial level. As he and his assistant continue their work, he hopes to find more alternatives to the Earth’s dwindling supply of endangered elements.