Project Details
Description
Integration of nanoparticles into polymers leads to enhancement in thermal, mechanical and shape changing properties of composite materials. Functionalizing nanoparticle surfaces with polymers that are chemically identical to matrix polymer are commonly employed in conventional polymer composites simply to control particle dispersion. However, maintaining dispersion and mechanical properties during high temperature processing and applications holds a critical importance in manufacturing and performance of polymeric products. This grant focuses on understanding the role of particle-polymer interactions on dispersion, mechanical properties and processing. Towards this goal, the PIs will focus on a material system design with on-demand control on reversible mechanical response. Reversibly stiffening composites can be used in various applications from soft robotics, flexible electronics to injectable implants where mechanical integrity should be maintained when heated. This collaborative work offers a fundamental research plan integrating the expertise of the PIs on experimental and molecular dynamics simulations on polymer nanocomposites to study the underlying mechanisms. In addition, the project offers to educate graduate and undergraduate students on nanomaterials design and processing. To broaden the knowledge of nanoscience and nanomaterials in high school education, the PIs aim to organize a workshop for teachers in New Jersey and New York area.
The team aims to explore the phenomenon of reversible stiffening in polymer nanocomposites. It is hypothesized that particles coated with a high glass transition temperature (Tg) polymer and dispersed in a low-Tg polymer exhibit liquid-to-solid transition upon heating. Experimental work is designed to show the universality of this behavior in various miscible blends with different glass-transition temperature differences. The phenomenon will be employed on magnetic nanoparticles to demonstrate that the mechanical behavior can be regulated with local heating of particles. Moreover, additional experiments to relate the local viscosity and particle relaxations in asymmetric blends on interphases are planned in order to capture the physics and mechanical response in the experimental system design. Simulations will run in parallel and will be used to guide the material design and more importantly will identify the atomistic scale physics that leads to stiffening at high temperatures. Processing studies will be conducted to understand the stability of interphase layers, and composite structure (morphology) and properties after processing. The processing results are very relevant for the material design such as for biomedical implants where materials will experience frequent and controlled dynamic loadings during their intended use for in vivo bone formation.
Status | Finished |
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Effective start/end date | 1/09/15 → 31/08/18 |
Funding
- National Science Foundation