Throughout summer 2021 and 2022, Jerry and Kyle taught a group of Memorial High School students the principles of 3D printing. The group learned to build their own 3D printer, how to determine and optimize print parameters, and even converted their printer into their very own powder melt extrusion (PME) printer capable of printing recycled plastics.
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Congratulations Julia for passing her TBE!
Congratulations Julia for passing her thesis background exam (TBE)! Keep up the great work 🙂
Congrats Mark and Ruojia on winning the Hilldale Research Fellowship!
WOW! Undergraduate researchers Mark Zhang and Ruojia Li each won a Hilldale Research Fellowship this year! Congratulations to Mark and Ruojia, and huge thanks to the University of Wisconsin for the generous support.
Congrats Mark on his awards!
Huge congratulations to our team member, Mark Zhang, who received THREE highly competitive scholarships this year. They are the Ackerman Scholarship, Edward J. Panek Memorial Scholarship, and Ackerman Summer Research Scholarship. We are extremely proud …
The Boydston Group presented at the UW-Madison Engineering Expo 2022 and won 3rd place!
In the Spring of 2022, Kyle and Rachel organized an exhibit for the UW College of Engineering, Engineering Expo. The Expo was over two days, the first of which catered to local middle school students, and the second was open to the public.
The exhibit was titled, “Playing with Plastics: How Scientists Make Meaningful Materials.” We wanted to help visitors understand the chemical and physical differences between commonly encountered plastics. Interactive demonstrations included making slime, vat and extrusion 3D printing, and dissolving packing peanuts. The whole group helped out with the exhibit and was awarded 3rd place by a panel of judges.
Congrats Ruojia on her awards!
Huge congratulations to our team member, Ruojia Li, who received THREE highly competitive scholarships this year. They are the Richard Fischer Scholarship and Don Brouse Memorial Scholarship, each from the Department of Chemistry, as well …
Welcome Harshal and Daria!
The Group happily welcomes its newest members, Harshal and Daria! We’re glad to have you join us and do awesome science 🙂
Mechanoactivation of Color and Autonomous Shape Change in 3D-Printed Ionic Polymer Networks
Stimuli-responsive materials can enhance the field of three-dimensional (3D) printing by generating objects that change shape in response to external cues. While temperature and pH are common inputs for initiating a response in a 3D-printed object, there are few examples of using a mechanical input to afford a response. Herein, we report a suite of mechanochromic ionic liquid gel inks that can be used to fabricate 3D-printed objects that use a single mechanoactivation event to elicit both a mechanochromic response and an autonomous shape change. Direct-ink write 3D printing was used to deposit ionic liquid gel inks to create multimaterial objects that underwent a predetermined mechanoactivated shape change (mechanomorphic) when the sample was pulled and then released. When spiropyran was incorporated into the inks, the onset of spiropyran isomerization into its purple merocyanine form occurred at strains dependent upon the particular ion gel ink formulation. We suggest that the color onset could be used as a simple indicator for when the strain required to achieve a predetermined change in shape has been reached, potentially serving as real-time visual cue for the user. Such morphing 3D-printed structures with integrated instructions have potential application to areas including stowable structures as well as multiresponsive autonomous components and sensors.
A highly efficient metal-free protocol for the synthesis of linear polydicyclopentadiene.
We have achieved breakthroughs for the efficient synthesis of linear polydicyclopentadiene (pDCPD) via photoredox mediated metal-free ring-opening metathesis polymerization (MF-ROMP). Molecular weight control from 1 to 16 kDa can be targeted in a straightforward manner. Assisted by this method, the Tg–Mn dependence of linear pDCPD is investigated and reported for the first time.
Mechanochemical Release of N‐heterocyclic Carbenes from Flex‐Activated Mechanophores.
We have discovered a new flex-activated mechanophore that releases an N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) under mechanical load. The mechanophore design is based upon NHC-carbodiimide (NHC-CDI) adducts and demonstrates an important first step toward flex-activated designs capable of further downstream reactivities. Since the flex-activation is non-destructive to the main polymer chains, the material can be subjected to multiple compression cycles to achieve iterative increases in the activation percentage of mechanophores. Two different NHC structures were demonstrated, signifying the potential modularity of the mechanophore design.