PhD students Kartik and Xiuzhu’s paper titled “Strong, thermo-reversible salogels with boronate ester bonds as thermal energy storage materials” was accepted for publication in Journal of Materials Chemistry A.

In this work, Kartik and Xiuzhu compare boronate ester salogels with well-known hydrogels. They show that the highly ionic environment of salt hydrates allow the formation of strong gels compared to water with small amounts of polymer and crosslinker (~3.3 wt%). They also demonstrate the first use of dynamic covalent crosslinks, with repeatable on-demand thermo-reversibility, as a shape stabilizing matrix for inorganic salt hydrate phase change materials in thermal energy storage applications. The article is  now available to read online.

Congratulations, Kartik and Xiuzhu!

PhD candidate Aliaksei Aliakseyeu’s research was recently accepted to Macromolecules!

The article, titled “Impact of Star Polyacid Branching on Polymer Diffusion within Multilayer Films“, is now available to read online. This article explores the effect of polymer branching on the diffusion of polymers with LbL films assembled at low pH and considers different factors that affects the polymer dynamics within the film.

Congratulations, Aliaksei!

Many congratulations to Diana Al Husseini and Qing Zhou for successfully defending their dissertations!

Dr. Al Husseini earned her degree based on her work on nanoparticle assembly for gas-sensing applications. Her dissertation is titled “Surface Functionalization for Selective Mid-Infrared On-Chip Sensing”.

Dr. Zhou earned his degree based on his work on 3D-printable, shape-reconfigurable polymer networks. His dissertation is titled “Effect of Crosslinker Flexibility and Crosslinking Density on Thermo-Mechanical Behavior of 3D Printable Diels-Alder Polymer Networks”.

PhD student Jordan Brito’s research was recently accepted to ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces!

The article, titled “Hierarchically Structured, All-Aqueous-Coated Hydrophobic Surfaces with pH-Selective Droplet Transfer Capability“, is now available to read online. In this article, hydrophobic coatings with pH-responsive droplet capture were created using an all-aqueous layer-by-layer deposition technique. The fluorinated anionic polyphosphazenes used in these coatings endowed the surfaced with a novel combination of hydrophobicity with pH sensitivity, allowing for pH-sensitive droplet transfer.

Congratulations, Jordan!

 

PhD student Zhen Sang’s research was recently accepted to Chemical Engineering Journal!

The article, titled “Dynamic Polymer Network Conductive Nanocomposites: Low Percolation Threshold and Joule-heating-induced Network Plasticity“, is now available to read online. In this work, we report a novel nanocomposite based on Diels-Alder polymer (DAP) dynamic networks. These nanocomposites showed an extremely low percolation threshold at 0.04 wt% filler loading as well as the ability of permanent shape reconfiguration by Joule-heating. Reprogramming directions and time sequences in material motions can facilitate implementations of these actuation systems for applications requiring complex reprogrammable shape manipulations.

Congratulations, Zhen!