Date of Award

5-2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Materials Science and Engineering

Committee Chair/Advisor

Dr. Marek W. Urban

Committee Member

Dr. Igor Luzinov

Committee Member

Dr. Philip J. Brown

Committee Member

Dr. Jianhua Tong

Abstract

Self-healing polymers capable of recovering from physical damages are promising materials for advanced technologies. In these studies, we developed routes to achieve self-healable properties in acrylic-based copolymers that rely on non-covalent dipolar interactions present in essentially all polymeric materials. Using a combination of spectroscopic tools, thermo-mechanical analysis, and molecular dynamic (MD) simulations, these studies have shown that dipolar interactions lead to conformational changes of macromolecular segments which, in turn, result in self-healing without external intervention. This dissertation also describes the development of novel self-healable acrylic-based covalent adaptable networks (CANs) that combine reprocessing and self-healing properties. The utilization of dipolar interactions combined with dynamic covalent exchange reactions provide opportunities for the development of sustainable commodity materials. Furthermore, self-healable copolymers composed of ionic liquid and commodity monomers were developed which exhibit accelerated self-healing upon the application of AC electric fields attributed to enhanced dipolar interactions in the presence of ionic species.

Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0002-5045-492X

Available for download on Tuesday, April 11, 2023

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