Engineering Commons^™

Epoxy-Functional Thermoplastic Copolymers And Their Incorporation Into Thermosetting Resins, Kayla Rose Sweet

Theses and Dissertations

While polymers have secured a place in the consumer, industrial, and military markets over the last seventy years, the next generation of polymers must become more renewable, more adaptive, and higher performing to bridge industrial needs and environmental gaps. To this end, unique network configurations of copolymers and interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs) have been employed to combine features of two or more polymers into a single material that surpasses the sum of its parts. The customization of polymer networks can be made possible via dual-functional monomers, molecules characterized by two different reactive substituents that allow for versatile methods of polymerization. …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Thermosetting Epoxy Resins From Lignin-Inspired Phenolics, Kelli Marie Hambleton

Theses and Dissertations

The need for renewable polymers able to replace their petrochemical counterparts continues to grow as sustainability concerns constantly rise. Bisguaiacol, a bio-based alternative to bisphenol-A, has been synthesized using vanillyl alcohol and guaiacol via an electrophilic aromatic condensation. Purification provides both bisguaiacol and an oligomeric coproduct with a consistent number average molecular weight and dispersity of about 650 Da and 1.00, respectively, across multiple reaction volume scales. This coproduct has been well characterized as a low molecular weight novolac averaging 5 hydroxyls per molecule and was transformed into an epoxy resin suitable for use in thermosetting resin development. By utilizing …

Bijels Made By Solvent Transfer Induced Phase Separation: Formation Principles And Transport, Stephen Boakye-Ansah

Theses and Dissertations

Bijels are made of non-equilibrium particle-stabilized emulsions with a bicontinuous arrangement of the constituent fluid phases. They spontaneously form through arrested spinodal decomposition in mixtures of partially miscible liquids and neutrally wetting colloidal particles. Soon after their discovery over 10 years ago, Prof. Mike Cates, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, predicted their future use as continuously operated cross-flow reactors for chemical reactions between immiscible reactants.

Towards this goal, work in this thesis focuses on designing bijels via Solvent Transfer Induced Phase Separation (STrIPS) for microfluidic transport applications. Structure-function relationships of STrIPS bijels stabilized by silane functionalized nanoparticles are developed. In-situ surfactant …

Study And Characterization Of Conductive Elastomers For Biomedical Applications, Hadis Gharacheh

Theses and Dissertations

Health issues have always been one of humankind's biggest challenges. Over the last century, there has been significant and monumental progress in health and biomedical science, with the end goal of alleviating and eliminating illnesses and ailments. For developing biomedical devices, polymers and elastomers group among other types of biomaterials have been highlighted to be used due to high flexibility, stability, biocompatibility, and mechanical and rheological characteristics. In this work, the characterization of acrylated poly glycerol_sebacate (PGSA) polymer conjugated with bio ionic liquid (BIL) was investigated. Results showed high biocompatibility, high printability with tunable mechanical, adhesive, and conductivity properties. For …

Synthesis And Evaluation Of Catalytic Application Of Porous Resin, Mahboubeh Nabavinia

Theses and Dissertations

The abilities to tailor catalytic functional groups and chemical characteristics onto a robust polymer structure make mesoporous phenolic resins great candidates for catalytic support applications. The use of a template synthesis method for configuring a catalytic structure is neither commercially nor environmentally friendly. In this Ph.D. thesis, new one-pot template-free methods for synthesizing mesoporous metal-doped phenol-formaldehyderesin were developed. The methods facilitate scaling for industrial catalytic applications in pharmaceutical, environmental, and medical applications. Heterogeneous palladium centered catalytic mesoporous structures were synthesized by a single-stage template-free method. BET adsorption measurements, SEM, EDX, XPS, and TEM were used to study the surface area, …

Hybrid Monomers & Resins For High-Performance Thermosetting Polymers, Thermoplastics, & Additive Manufacturing, Alexander William Bassett

Theses and Dissertations

Vinyl ester and epoxy resins are used to produce thermosetting polymeric materials for a variety of commercial and military applications due to their relatively high moduli (2-3 GPa at 25 deg C), glass transition temperatures (Tgs) (greater than or equal to 120 deg C), and adequate fracture toughness (G1C approx. 200-250 J m-2). Most commercially available vinyl ester and epoxy resins are typically cured via traditional manufacturing techniques such as resin transfer molding and thermal curing. However, additive manufacturing (AM) has gained significant traction as a favorable manufacturing technique over traditional methods due to the ability to create customizable parts …