Alternative chemistries for self-healing materials
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MSCA-2020-JBrancart01
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Beschrijving van het project
At the Physical Chemistry and Polymer Science (FYSC) research group we have years of experience using the reversible Diels-Alder cycloaddition reaction between furan and maleimide functional groups to create polymer network systems that could be formed in a dynamically reversible fashion. Upon thermal or mechanical stimulation the adduct bonds break reversibly. Extensive knowledge of the reaction kinetics and understanding the structure-property relations allows optimization of the polymer network architecture and reactivity for developing material systems for many applications, including self-healing coatings, reversible processing and manufacturing, stimuli-responsive robotic actuators and composites. In view of further mastering the dynamically reversible behaviour of such advanced polymer systems, new reversible chemistries need to be evaluated for potential applications.
- The reversible chemistry can be changed to create a new stimuli-responsive behaviour that would lead to improved responsiveness towards certain stimuli (e.g. light) in view of broadening the scope of applications or that would lead to improved self-healing capabilities for practical implementation.
- The backbone chemistry of the polymer network can be altered to change the properties, independent of the stimuli-responsive behaviour of the material system. Catalysts could be incorporated into the polymer chain segments to improve the reactivity of the system.
- A combination of reversible chemistries could be used to create dual-responsive behaviour with respect to one or multiple stimuli. In addition, nanofillers could be used to further increase the responsive behaviour.
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Physical Chemistry and Polymer Science
The research activities of the research group Physical Chemistry and Polymer Science are focused on molecular and supra¬molecular structure–processing-property relations in synthetic, bio-based or natural polymers for developing sustainable materials with improved performance. A unique collection of physicochemical analytical techniques and characterization procedures is available for this purpose. Novel macromolecular materials are designed by polymer synthesis, either in-house or in collaboration with external partners.A contribution to the international progress of thermal analysis for materials’ characterization is aimed at, extending the instrument range to:
- techniques for measuring transitions more sensitively: modulated temperature differential scanning calorimetry, micro- and nanocalorimetry,
- faster techniques suitable for thin films and ultra-small samples: ultra fast scanning chip-based methods,
- techniques permitting analyses on a smaller lateral scale: spatially localized thermal analysis at the micro- and nanometer level using atomic force microscopy based methods,
- novel in-house developed hyphenated thermal techniques permitting combinations of measurements on a single sample.