Self-Healable Copolymers;
Recent Advances and Future Opportunities
| Speaker: | Prof Marek W Urban J.E. Sirrine Foundation Endowed Chair and Professor, Materials Science and Engineering | Chemistry (courtesy), Clemson University |
| Date: | Thursday, 9 February 2023 |
| Time: | 10.30am to 11.30am |
| Host: | Asst Prof Tan Yu Jun |
| Join the seminar on Cassyni: Seminar page | NUS ME Seminar Series | |
| The effectiveness of van der Waals (vdW) interactions formulated the new path (Science 2018) for the development of acrylic-based copolymers that exhibit self-healing. Taking advantage of the large polarizability of copolymer side groups, non-directional vdW interactions between neighboring macromolecular segments are enhanced, which upon mechanical damage return to their initial conformations. Interestingly, this process is accelerated by the presence of confined water molecules. Since dipole-dipole, dipole-induced dipole, and induced-dipole induced dipole interactions significantly impact viscoelastic response controlling macroscopic autonomous multicycle self-healing, the presence of ionic liquid units copolymerized into one macromolecular chain also alters vdW forces, thus providing an opportunity for applying electric fields to accelerate self-healing. The last part of this lecture will focus on the most recent developments of self-healable and reprocessable covalent adaptive networks (CANs). Collectively, an interplay of relatively week and ubiquitous H-bonding, vdW, and Coulombic interactions accelerates self-healing upon mechanical damage in the presence of electric field. This talk will elucidate the molecular origin of processes responsible for autonomous repairs of copolymers. |
Marek W. Urban is the J.E. Sirrine Foundation Endowed Chair and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Chemistry (courtesy) Departments at Clemson University. Prior to joining Clemson University, he was a professor, department chair, and director of polymer science programs at NDSU and USM, where he also directed the Materials Research Science and Engineering (MRSEC) as well as Industry/University Cooperative Research (I/U CRC) Centers funded by the National Science Foundation. He is the author of about 500 research publications and 13 patents, author of four, and editor of seven books. His research on self-healing polymers and antimicrobial polymer surfaces has been featured by numerous media. He is the Fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS) PMSE Division, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the American Institute of Chemists (AIC), and the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS). His research group’s current research efforts focus on the development of polymeric materials and interfaces with ‘living-like’ functions, self-healing commodity polymers, new generations of stimuli-responsive materials with adaptable, sensing, and signaling functions as well as spectroscopic imaging methods enabling molecular detection of stimuli-responsiveness.