Chemistry Seminars

Lifecycle Control of Polymer Materials

Jeffrey Moore, Department of Chemistry and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

In this talk, Moore will discuss the molecular design of organic structural materials that mimic living systems’ abilities to protect, report, heal, and even regenerate themselves in response to damage, with the goal of increasing lifetime, safety, and sustainability of many manufactured items. Moore will emphasize recent developments in frontal ring-opening metathesis polymerization (FROMP) to manufacture composites with minimal energy consumption. The talk will conclude by introducing the idea of morphogenic manufacturing in which we aim to achieve symmetry breaking in neat polymerization reactions through a coupled reaction-diffuse process; the long-term vision is self-patterned form and function in synthetic materials.

References:

  1. Patrick, J.F.; Robb, M.J.; Sottos, N.R.; Moore, J.S.; White, S.R. Polymers with Autonomous Life-cycle Control, Nature, 2016, 540, 363-370.
  2. Robertson, I.D.; Yourdkhani, M.; Centellas, P.J.; Aw, J.; Ivanoff, D.G.; Goli, E.; Lloyd. E.M.; Dean, L.M.; Sottos, N.R.; Geubelle, P.H.; Moore, J.S.; White, S.R. Rapid Energy-efficient Manufacturing of Polymers and Composites via Frontal Polymerization, Nature, 2018, 557, 223.