Exploiting entropy to enhance toughness in polymer gels with reversible crosslinks

Duration: 19 mins 59 secs
Share this media item:
Embed this media item:


About this item
Image inherited from collection
Description: Tito, N
Tuesday 14th May 2019 - 10:20 to 10:40
 
Created: 2019-05-15 15:51
Collection: The mathematical design of new materials
Publisher: Isaac Newton Institute
Copyright: Tito, N
Language: eng (English)
Distribution: World     (downloadable)
Explicit content: No
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Screencast: No
Bumper: UCS Default
Trailer: UCS Default
 
Abstract: Co-Authors: Costantino Creton, Cornelis Storm, Wouter Ellenbroek Entropy is the daunting "second half" of thermodynamics, universally encountered yet often overlooked when designing molecular recipes for new soft materials and structures. This talk seeks to inspire a line of thought on how entropy can be harnessed as a central design element in soft polymeric materials, for imbuing adaptability, robustness, and functional uniqueness. Highly elastic yet failure-resistant polymer gels with reversible crosslinks [1] will be showcased as a recent example where entropy provides unexpected functionality. Using a combination of theory, molecular simulation, and polymer self-consistent field theory for networks [2], I will discuss how entropy counter-intuitively leads to spatial clustering of reversible crosslinks around permanent crosslinks in the polymer gel. This entropy-induced order leads the gel to be less prone to failure, while maintaining its high degree of extensibility [3]. Practical guidelines will be outlined to optimise this design in experiment, along with a discussion of key kinetic and timescale considerations. [1] Kean, Z. S.; et al. Adv. Mat. 2014, 26, 6013. [2] Tito, N. B.; Storm, C.; Ellenbroek, W. G. Macromolecules 2017, 50, 9788. [3] Tito, N. B.; Creton, C.; Storm, C; Ellenbroek, W. G. Soft Matter 2019, 15, 2190.
Available Formats
Format Quality Bitrate Size
MPEG-4 Video 640x360    1.93 Mbits/sec 290.69 MB View Download
WebM 640x360    559.78 kbits/sec 82.00 MB View Download
iPod Video 480x270    521.95 kbits/sec 76.39 MB View Download
MP3 44100 Hz 249.84 kbits/sec 36.60 MB Listen Download
Auto * (Allows browser to choose a format it supports)