Engineering Commons^™

Fabrication Of 3d Conjugated Polymer Structures Via Vat Polymerization Additive Manufacturing, Andrew T. Cullen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Conjugated polymers are a class of electromechanically active materials that can produce motion in response to an electric potential. This motion can be harnessed to perform mechanical work, and therefore these materials are particularly well suited for use as sensors and actuators in microelectromechanical systems. Conventional methods to fabricate conjugated polymer actuators result in planar morphologies that limit fabricated devices to simplistic linear or bending actuation modes. To overcome this limitation, this work develops a conjugated polymer formulation and associated additive manufacturing method capable of realizing three-dimensional conductive polymer structures. A light-based additive manufacturing technique known as vat polymerization is …

Exploring The Chemistry Of Phosphorus For Photopolymer Applications, Ryan Guterman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Prior to this thesis, phosphorus-containing polymers and photopolymerization represented two distinct, non-overlapping fields of study. This thesis examined the prospect of combining these two approaches to create a system possessing the benefits of both techniques. By exploiting the chemistry of phosphorus, and using photopolymerization as a fabrication method, new materials were developed and assessed for their use in various applications.

Among the many phosphorus compounds that may be used in polymer science, phosphonium salts and primary phosphines were of specific focus. First, highly fluorinated phosphonium monomers were developed to create photopolymerized hydrophobic surfaces. A structure-activity relationship was established, as both …