IEM Seminar Series: Realizing Tomorrow's Multimaterials by Fundamental Reaction Kinetics Principles
Abstract
Seamless multimaterial construction, particularly joining soft, stretchable tissues with stiff, inextensible structures, is a common motif in animal physiology. Such continuous mechanical gradients remain challenging to reproduce in engineered systems because current resin chemistries only result in a single fixed set of properties. Emerging additive manufacturing technologies (3D printing) can potentially close the gap in structural complexity between human-made and natural systems, but these fabrication methods still struggle to produce robust synthetic multimaterials comparable to those found in physiology. To this end, I will discuss our latest efforts in engineering sequential chemical reactions to close this gap. This talk will contain the two following topics.
Bio
Sijia Huang is currently a Lawrence Fellow in the Material Engineering Division at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. As a Principal Investigator, her current projects include i) chemical recycling of polyurethanes, ii) development of mechanically robust multimaterials for Volumetric Additive Manufacturing, and iii) porous photopolymers for biomedical applications. Before joining LLNL in October 2021, she graduated with her B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 2015 and her Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 2020.
Seamless multimaterial construction, particularly joining soft, stretchable tissues with stiff, inextensible structures, is a common motif in animal physiology. Such continuous mechanical gradients remain challenging to reproduce in engineered systems because current resin chemistries only result in a single fixed set of properties. Emerging additive manufacturing technologies (3D printing) can potentially close the gap in structural complexity between human-made and natural systems, but these fabrication methods still struggle to produce robust synthetic multimaterials comparable to those found in physiology. To this end, I will discuss our latest efforts in engineering sequential chemical reactions to close this gap. This talk will contain the two following topics.
- A fundamental investigation of the reaction kinetics of common monomers used in photopolymerization systems. This kinetics tool can predict thiol-Michael photopolymerization reaction behaviors and guide researchers to choose monomers by design.
- A kinetically sequential thiol-ene-epoxy framework for creating stable multimaterials that can mimic a wide range of mechanical performances available in natural tissues. These multimaterials possess Young’s Moduli spanning over three orders of magnitude (from 0.0004 GPa to 1.6 GPa) with smooth transitions between soft and stiff regions. This unique chemistry platform unlocks many possibilities to design tomorrow’s tough and multi-responsive multimaterials with intricate architectures.
Bio
Sijia Huang is currently a Lawrence Fellow in the Material Engineering Division at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. As a Principal Investigator, her current projects include i) chemical recycling of polyurethanes, ii) development of mechanically robust multimaterials for Volumetric Additive Manufacturing, and iii) porous photopolymers for biomedical applications. Before joining LLNL in October 2021, she graduated with her B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 2015 and her Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 2020.
Practical information
- General public
- Free