Collaborative Research: Processing Films from Multi-Functional Polymer Dispersion Blends

聚合物分散体是将聚合物的细小颗粒分散在水中的一类材料。这些材料通常用于几个行业，包括医药、油漆和涂料、汽车和塑料，并且有加工这些传统聚合物分散体的设备。然而，由于缺乏基本的了解，从多功能聚合物分散体共混物(结合两种或两种以上类型的分散粒子)加工薄膜是一个巨大的挑战。控制薄膜性能极其困难，因为聚合物分散体、加工条件或化学成分的微小变化都可能导致不可预测的颗粒大小和形状。该奖项将有助于合理设计聚合物分散体共混物，以获得具有多功能性能的薄膜，例如具有响应光学性能的薄膜、可重复使用的抗微生物薄膜和机械坚固的有机太阳能电池。该奖项产生的新知识有可能通过帮助现有工业应用变得更可持续以及新应用的开发，对现有工业应用产生快速影响。该奖项将为科学和工程领域中代表性不足的群体提供研究机会，并帮助向公众传播科学和工程知识。这项研究的总体目标是建立基本的过程-结构-性能关系，以指导多功能应用的混合聚合物分散体的预测性设计。这项工作将使用模拟、合成和表征之间的系统、协同和迭代的方法来了解具有可变相容的多个组分在溶剂中的形态和自组装，例如由两个或两个以上有机大分子、初级有机溶剂、次级共溶剂、表面活性剂和水组成的乳液。聚合物分散体将通过介观计算方法进行模拟，该方法已被用于研究和预测乳化、聚合物聚集体和复杂自组装结构的相行为和性质。基于乳液的共振红外基质辅助脉冲激光蒸发将用于聚合物分散体的薄膜沉积，这对于消除乳液过程与成膜性质之间的相互依赖至关重要。这种沉积过程，特别是激光与目标的相互作用和激光产生的羽流特性，将用粗颗粒分子动力学来解释。沉积的薄膜将使用标准材料和器件表征技术进行研究。这项工作的结果将提供一个预测性的理论框架，以阐明决定不同聚合物分散体如何在溶液和薄膜中混合的机制。

Polymer dispersions are a general class of materials in which fine particles of polymers are dispersed in water. These materials are used commonly in several industries, including medicine, paints and coatings, automobiles and plastics, and equipment exists for processing these traditional polymer dispersions. However, processing thin films from multi-functional polymer dispersion blends (combining two or more types of dispersed particles) poses a significant challenge due to lack of fundamental understanding. Control over film properties is extremely difficult because minor changes in polymer dispersion processing conditions or chemistry can lead to unpredictable particle sizes and shapes. This award will enable a path towards the rational design of polymer dispersion blends to achieve films with multifunctional properties, such as films with responsive optical properties, reusable anti-microbial films, and mechanically-robust organic solar cells. The new knowledge generated by this award has the potential for rapid impact on existing industrial applications by helping them become more sustainable, as well as the development of new applications. This award will provide research opportunities to underrepresented groups in science and engineering and help disseminate science and engineering knowledge to the public.The overall goal of this research is to establish fundamental process-structure-property relations to guide the predictive design of blended polymer dispersions for multi-functional applications. This work will use a systematic, synergistic and iterative approach among simulations, synthesis and characterization to understand the morphology and self-assembly of multiple components with variable miscibility in a solvent, such as emulsions comprising two or more organic macromolecules, primary organic solvent, secondary co-solvent, surfactant, and water. Polymer dispersions will be simulated by a mesoscale computational method that has been used to study and predict the phase behavior and properties of emulsification, polymer aggregates, and complex self-assembled structures. Emulsion-based, resonant infrared matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation will be used for the thin-film deposition of polymer dispersions, which is critical to eliminate the mutual dependence between the emulsion process and the nature of film formation. This deposition process, specifically the laser-target interaction and laser-generated plume characteristics, will be explained using coarse-grained molecular dynamics. The deposited films will be investigated using standard materials and device characterization techniques. The outcomes of this work will provide a predictive theoretical framework to elucidate the mechanisms that determine how disparate polymer dispersions blend in solution and in films.