Masoud Soroush (Drexel), Andrew M. Rappe (UPenn) and Michael C. Grady (DuPont) received a three-year research grant entitled "Collaborative Project: GOALI: Acrylic Resins Optimal Product and Process Design through Combined Use of Chemical Quantum Calculations and Spectroscopic Methods" from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The project deals with spontaneous thermal polymerization of acrylates, which allows for the production of higher quality, environmentally friendlier solvent-borne paints and coatings at lower operating costs. By combining efficient first-principles quantum-mechanical density functional theory calculations with spectroscopic measurements of polymer samples, this project aims at identifying conclusively mechanisms of free-radical polymerization reactions, including the reaction intermediates and transition states. Calculations are performed with increasingly realistic solvent models, including multiple explicit solvent molecules in the quantum region and recently-developed van der Waals DFT functionals, to improve intermolecular potential energy surfaces. The lead institution is Drexel, and the total budget is $590,574 with $550,574 from the NSF and $40,000 from DuPont. Drexel's share is $360,000 and UPenn's $230,574.