Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Polymer and Organic Materials Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Polymer and Organic Materials

Copolymer Microphase Separation, Properties, And Applications, Daniel Weller May 2022

Copolymer Microphase Separation, Properties, And Applications, Daniel Weller

Dissertations

Copolymers represent a broad, but critically important class of materials. Often having properties superior to either of its constituents, copolymers are used in virtually all industries including automotive, aerospace, coatings, packaging, and cosmetics. Certain copolymers microphase separate to form nanosized domains that improve the physical properties of the copolymer. The polymer community already has a thorough understanding of how phase separation occurs, but the commercialization of phase separating copolymers lags significantly behind academia. Many of the copolymers that exist that have been undercharacterized and underutilized. This dissertation examines two such polymers. The first, a hard polystyrene material with soft nanodomains. …


Utilizing The Oxygen-Barrier Properties Of Poly(Isobutylene) To Enhance Photon Upconversion In Thermoplastic Elastomers, Haley Carroll May 2021

Utilizing The Oxygen-Barrier Properties Of Poly(Isobutylene) To Enhance Photon Upconversion In Thermoplastic Elastomers, Haley Carroll

Honors Theses

Upconversion (UC) is the conversion of low energy light to higher energy light. It is utilized for a broad range of applications such as solar energy harvesting, microscopy of cellular biology, and cancer therapy. Specifically, triplet-triplet annihilation UC (TTA-UC) involves two dye species, a sensitizer and an annihilator, which are capable of upconverting noncoherent light such as sunlight. Traditionally, TTA-UC is achieved in solution, rubbers, or glasses, however, this work probes the capabilities of a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) matrix to examine the effect of phase-separated morphology on the energy transfers necessary for TTA-UC. The system herein consists of poly(styrene-isobutylene-styrene) (SIBstar) …


Structure-Property Relationships Of Polyisobutylene-Block-Polyamide Thermoplastic Elastomers, Morgan Dunn Heskett Dec 2016

Structure-Property Relationships Of Polyisobutylene-Block-Polyamide Thermoplastic Elastomers, Morgan Dunn Heskett

Master's Theses

Thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) are a class of polymer fit for a wide variety of applications due to their customizability. In the synthesis of these types of materials, an elastically-performing polymer, deemed the “soft block,” is combined with a stiffer “hard block” polymer, each of which can be selected based on their own specific properties in order to achieve desired material behavior in the final copolymer. Recently, the use of polyisobutylene as a soft block in combination with a polyamide hard block has been investigated for use in TPE synthesis. While the material showed some promising behavior, many properties were still …