CAREER: Autonomous, Rapid Self-Healing and Ultra-Stretchable Electronic Polymer Research & Education for Outreach and Student Success in STEM

职业：自主、快速自愈和超可拉伸电子聚合物研究

• 批准号: 1942492
• 负责人: Evan Wujcik
• 金额: $ 52.34万
• 依托单位: University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-05-01 至 2023-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1942492&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Autonomous; Rapid; Self; Healing

With recent developments in polymer science and conducting polymers, advances are being made in stretchable electronic polymer systems for applications in healthcare, robotics, and entertainment. These systems are attached to clothes or worn directly on the skin for monitoring physical signals, biochemical signals, and motion. Due to the soft, compliant, and complex nature of skin and the natural bending and rotational motion associated with joints, the stretchable electronic polymers should be soft and mechanically robust enough for the wearer to comfortably perform motions such as bending, stretching, and twisting. To prevent long-term performance decline it is desirable for the films to continually heal themselves. Conventional semiconductors, like silicon, are brittle and rigid. Since they are not self-healing, they are unsuitable for many stretchable electronic polymer applications. This work investigates the synthesis, internal structure, self-healing ability, and electrical properties of these dynamic ultra-stretchable systems and utilizes them for wearable electronics, such as sensors. This project's education and outreach activities are combined with the research in a manner that impacts the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. This effort has three main foci: the participation of underrepresented and multi-cultural student groups, improving engineering education at both the undergraduate and graduate level, and outreach to educators & future STEM students. The educational goal of this proposal highlights the role stretchable electronic polymers play in everyday life through the creation of educational YouTube videos reaching thousands of potential STEM students and teachers.Currently, there is no electronic material that possesses the properties of skin—compliant, elastic, stretchable, and self-healable. This work investigates stretchable electronic polymer systems and the underlying phenomena of these advanced materials—for future applications in healthcare and engineering fields. The fundamental goal of this work is to understand the relationship between synthesis, internal structure, self-healing ability, and electrical properties of dynamic polyaniline/acidic polyacrylamide/small molecule dopant stretchable electronic polymer systems—to fully understand these stretchable electronic polymer materials and apply them specifically to wearable sensor/electronic functionalities. The technical merit of the work provides new insight into the role of both small molecule dopants and polyacrylamides acidic group content and the overall structure of stretchable, self-healable, conductive polyaniline systems. This project elucidates current stretchable electronic polymer systems by unraveling the electrical/self-healing activity in relation to the internal film structure. This knowledge is cross-disciplinary and aids developments in the fields of sensor/surface science, basic materials science and engineering, etc. The research team investigates the effects of small molecule dopants and acidic polyacrylamides on the synthesis/structure/electrical/self-healing properties and working relationships of dynamic polyaniline systems and links this activity to the internal film structure. Investigating the effects of molecular weight, structure, as well as the number and class of the acidic groups of the small molecule dopants allows the investigator to understand how the intermolecular, thermal, morphological, self-healing, and electrical properties depend on the electrostatic interactions and hydrogen bonding within the material. The acidic groups of the polyacrylamides increase the electrostatic interactions within the material and aid the doping of polyaniline, the electrical properties, and the self-healing ability. Varying the amount and type of acidic polyacrylamides enables the researchers to (i) explore their function in the electrostatic interactions of the dynamic systems and (ii) understand how the intermolecular, thermal, morphological, and electrical properties depend on the internal film structure. This understanding allows for a thorough investigation of the basic properties (gauge factor, linearity of response, self-healing) of this class of polymer systems for realizable wearable stretchable electronic polymers for medical diagnosis, prosthetics, e-skins, etc. The research contributes to the current theory relating these functional materials to the fundamental understanding of the electrostatic interactions and internal film properties controlling these autonomous self-healable and ultra-stretchable polymers. The education and outreach components of this work integrate with the research through creative and artistic online media and outreach, and illustrates the importance of stretchable electronic polymers in everyday life to educators & future STEM students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

随着聚合物科学和导电聚合物的最新发展，可拉伸电子聚合物系统在医疗保健、机器人和娱乐领域的应用取得了进展。这些系统附着在衣服上或直接佩戴在皮肤上，用于监测物理信号、生化信号和运动。由于皮肤柔软、柔顺和复杂的性质以及与关节相关的自然弯曲和旋转运动，可拉伸的电子聚合物应该柔软且机械坚固，足以使穿戴者舒适地进行弯曲、拉伸和扭转等运动。为了防止长期的性能下降，我们希望电影能够不断地自我修复。传统的半导体，如硅，易碎且坚硬。由于它们不能自我修复，因此不适用于许多可拉伸的电子聚合物应用。这项工作研究了这些动态超拉伸系统的合成、内部结构、自修复能力和电学特性，并将其用于可穿戴电子产品，如传感器。该项目的教育和推广活动与研究相结合，影响科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）劳动力。这项工作有三个主要重点：代表性不足和多元文化的学生群体的参与，改善本科和研究生水平的工程教育，以及向教育工作者和未来的STEM学生伸出援助之手。该提案的教育目标是通过创建教育YouTube视频，向数千名潜在的STEM学生和教师展示可拉伸电子聚合物在日常生活中的作用。目前，还没有一种电子材料具有皮肤柔顺性、弹性、可拉伸性和自愈性。这项工作研究了可拉伸的电子聚合物系统和这些先进材料的潜在现象，用于未来在医疗保健和工程领域的应用。本工作的基本目标是了解动态聚苯胺/酸性聚丙烯酰胺/小分子掺杂可拉伸电子聚合物系统的合成、内部结构、自修复能力和电学性能之间的关系，以充分了解这些可拉伸电子聚合物材料，并将其专门应用于可穿戴传感器/电子功能。这项工作的技术优点为小分子掺杂剂和聚丙烯酰胺的酸性基团含量以及可拉伸、自愈、导电聚苯胺体系的整体结构的作用提供了新的见解。该项目通过揭示与内部薄膜结构相关的电/自愈活动来阐明当前可拉伸的电子聚合物系统。这些知识是跨学科的，有助于传感器/表面科学、基础材料科学和工程等领域的发展。研究小组研究了小分子掺杂剂和酸性聚丙烯酰胺对动态聚苯胺系统的合成/结构/电性/自愈特性和工作关系的影响，并将这种活性与内部膜结构联系起来。研究小分子掺杂剂的分子量、结构以及酸性基团的数量和类别的影响，使研究者能够了解分子间、热、形态、自我修复和电学性质如何依赖于材料内部的静电相互作用和氢键。聚丙烯酰胺的酸性基团增加了材料内部的静电相互作用，有助于聚苯胺的掺杂、电学性能和自愈能力。改变酸性聚丙烯酰胺的数量和类型使研究人员能够(i)探索它们在动态系统的静电相互作用中的功能，（ii）了解分子间、热、形态和电学性质如何依赖于内部薄膜结构。这种理解允许对这类聚合物系统的基本特性（测量因子、响应线性、自修复）进行彻底的研究，这些聚合物系统可用于医疗诊断、假肢、电子皮肤等可穿戴可拉伸电子聚合物。该研究有助于当前有关这些功能材料的理论，以基本理解静电相互作用和内部薄膜特性，控制这些自主自愈和超拉伸聚合物。这项工作的教育和推广部分通过创造性和艺术性的在线媒体和推广与研究相结合，并说明了可拉伸电子聚合物在日常生活中对教育工作者和未来STEM学生的重要性。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。