In collaboration with the Long group, Sean and Dr. Yang recently reviewed the recent advances in external-stimuli-modulated polymerizations. Check out the review here: https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.0c03802
Year: 2020
Congrats to Brock and Hang for their Nature Materials review!
Brock and Dr. Shen (in collaboration with the Boechler, Craig, Nelson, and Storti groups) just published a Nature Materials review on mechanochemistry. Check it out here: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-020-00249-w
Advances in Polymerizations Modulated by External Stimuli
Synthetic polymer chemistry endeavors to imitate the spatial and temporal control exhibited within biological systems to obtain well-defined polymeric materials with unique structures, properties, and applications. This is often approached through the development of dynamic catalyst (or initiator) systems that use external stimuli to elicit discrete, site-specific transformations that impact the polymerization. Herein we highlight developments in polymerizations that are modulated by external stimuli, with particular focus on those systems that enable notable changes in kinetics, monomer selectivity, polymer architecture, or tacticity. Examples of external stimuli include chemical oxidants or reductants, light, applied voltage, and mechanical force.
Huge congrats to Pengtao, Tori, Rachel, and Dan!
Pengtao, Tori, Rachel, and Dan recently published on the development of metal-free ROMP! Check it out here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.accounts.0c00427
The role of polymer mechanochemistry in responsive materials and additive manufacturing.
The use of mechanical forces to chemically transform polymers dates back decades. In recent years, the use of mechanochemistry to direct constructive transformations in polymers has resulted in a range of engineered molecular responses that span optical, mechanical, electronic and thermal properties. The chemistry that has been developed is now well positioned for use in materials science, polymer physics, mechanics and additive manufacturing. Here, we review the historical backdrop of polymer mechanochemistry, give an overview of the existing toolbox of mechanophores and associated theoretical methods, and speculate as to emerging opportunities in materials science for which current capabilities are seemingly well suited. Non-linear mechanical responses and internal, amplifying stimulus–response feedback loops, including those enabled by, or coupled to, microstructured metamaterial architectures, are seen as particularly promising.
Metal-Free Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization: From Concept to Creation
Ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP), which is derived from transition-metal-based olefin metathesis, has evolved into one of the most prevalent technologies for making functional polymeric materials in academia and in industry. The initial discovery of and advances in ROMP used ill-defined mixtures of metal salts to initiate polymerization. The initiators most commonly used today, developed with tremendous efforts, are well-defined metal−alkylidene complexes that have enabled a good mechanistic understanding of the polymerization as well as improvement of the initiators’ activity, stability, and functional group tolerance.
The evolution of ROMP has been decidedly metal-centric, with the path to accolades being paved primarily in ruthenium-, molybdenum-, and tungstenbased systems. Our departure from the ROMP trailhead was inspired in part by recent breakthroughs in radical-mediated polymerizations, whereby their mechanisms were leveraged to develop metal-free reaction conditions. Inventing a metal-free complement to traditional ROMP would essentially involve stepping away from decades of inorganic and organometallic developments, but with the promise of crossing new synthetic capabilities and curiosities. Driven by this motivation, as well as a community-inspired desire to develop “greener” controlled polymerizations, our team pioneered the search for, and discovery of, a wholly organic alternative to traditional metal-mediated ROMP. In this Account, we review our recent efforts to develop metal-free ring-opening metathesis polymerization (MF-ROMP), which is inspired by previous reports in electro- and photo-mediated organic transformations.
This work began with an exploration of the direct oxidation of enol ethers and the propensity of the ensuing radical cations to initiate ROMP. To overcome limitations of the electrochemical conditions, a photoredox-mediated method was investigated next, using photoexcited pyrylium salts to oxidize the enol ethers. With this system, we demonstrated the ability to produce ROMP products and temporally control the polymerization.
Further investigations into different aspects of the reaction included monomer scope, functional group tolerance, the impact of changing photocatalyst properties, and the ability to control molecular weight. The unique mechanism of MF-ROMP, along with the relative ease of synthesizing enol ether initiators, enabled the preparation of numerous polymeric materials that are hard to access through traditional metal-mediated pathways. At the end of this Account, we provide a perspective on future opportunities in this emerging area.
Congrats to Cody for his AM paper!
In collaboration with the Rudykh group, Cody authored a paper in Additive Manufacturing about the mechanical behavior of photocured polymers typically used in 3D printing. Read the article here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2020.101511
Mechanical characterization and constitutive modeling of visco-hyperelasticity of photocured polymers
In this work, we study the nonlinear behavior of soft photocured polymers typically used in 3D-printing. We perform experimental testing of 3D-printed samples cured at various controlled light intensities. The experimental data show the dependency of the material elasticity and rate-sensitivity on the curing light intensity. To elucidate these relations, we develop a physically-based visco-hyperelastic model in the continuum thermodynamics framework. In our model, the macroscopic viscoelastic behavior is bridged to the microscopic molecular chain scale. This approach allows us to express the material constants in terms of polymer chain physical parameters. We consider different physical mechanisms governing hyperelasticity and rate-dependent behaviors. The hyperelastic behavior is dictated by the crosslinked network; whereas, the viscous part originates in the free and dangling chains. Based on our experimental data, we illustrate the ability of the new constitutive model to accurately describe the influence of the light intensity on photocured polymer viscoelasticity.
Congrats to Chang-Uk, Jianxun, Brock, and Cody for their ACS Viewpoint article!
Chang-Uk, Jianxun, Brock, and Cody review the recent developments in the world of additive manufacturing with high-performance polymers, and then offer their perspective on the field’s future directions and challenges. Check out their article here: …
Not all PLA filaments are created equal: an experimental investigation.
Additive manufacturing (AM) methods such as material extrusion (ME) are becoming widely used by engineers, designers and hobbyists alike for a wide variety of applications. Successfully manufacturing objects using ME three-dimensional printers can often require numerous iterations to attain predictable performance because the exact mechanical behavior of parts fabricated via additive processes are difficult to predict. One of that factors that contributes to this difficulty is the wide variety of ME feed stock materials currently available in the marketplace. These build materials are often sold based on their base polymer material such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene or polylactic acid (PLA), but are produced by numerous different commercial suppliers in a wide variety of colors using typically undisclosed additive feed stocks and base polymer formulations. This paper aims to present the results from an experimental study concerned with quantifying how these sources of polymer variability can affect the mechanical behavior of three-dimensional printed objects. Specifically, the set of experiments conducted in this study focused on following: several different colors of PLA filament from a single commercial supplier to explore the effect of color additives and three filaments of the same color but produced by three different suppliers to account for potential variations in polymer formulation.