Magnetic nanoparticle inks for syringe printable inductors

Direct Ink Writing (DIW) additive manufacturing (AM) has the transformative potential to construct complex shapes and devices with a single apparatus by exchanging the printable material at the print head. Iron cobalt (FeCo), permalloy (Ni80Fe20), and iron (II,III) oxide (Fe2O3·FeO) nanoparticles with varying magnetic properties were incorporated in resins to explore the influence of particle loading on printability and inductor device performance. It was generally found that increasing particle loading increased ink viscosity, with a loading maximum approaching 29 – 42 vol% depending on the particle type and resin mixtures due to differences in particle shape and size and resin viscosity. With more magnetic content, composites had higher magnetic permeability and inductance. Syringe printable, colloidal, aqueous magnetic inks were made using both stabilized iron oxide and MnZn doped ferrite nanoparticles with added free polymers. MnZn doped ferrite inks are printed into toroids, sintered to improve magnetic permeability and mechanical robustness, and constructed into an inductor device. Inductors with high magnetic permalloy nanoparticle content were also syringe printed into toroids and hand-wound to demonstrate their viability in fabricating three-dimensional inductors. The effect of particle size on stability and printability was observed. The research presented in this thesis investigates various methods for formulating magnetic nanoparticle inks and evaluates the contributions of particle stabilization, free polymer content, solvent composition, and particle loading on the rheological behavior required for syringe printing. Material properties and device performances were characterized using methods such as zeta potential and settling studies to observe particle functionalization and stability, rheology to study viscoelastic flow behavior, and vector network analysis to measure inductance and device efficiency to showcase the viability of this technique to manufacture passive electronic devices

Sustainable Wood-Waste-Based Thermal Insulation Foam for Building Energy Efficiency

Wood is one of the most abundant biomaterials on Earth, which has been used for centuries in construction applications including furniture, roofing, flooring, and cabinetry. However, wood chips—which are a low-quality and plentiful waste byproduct of lumber milling, woodworking, and shipping operations—have low economic value and complicated disposal methods. In this paper, we propose a strategy for wood chip reuse through the fabrication of bio-based building insulation foam. Through a high-temperature chemical treatment delignification process, we introduced additional small pores within the wood chips, effectively lowering their thermal conductivity, and used them in combination with a binding agent to produce a porous insulation foam. The porous insulation foam achieved a low thermal conductivity of 0.038 W/(m·K) and a high compressive strength of 1.1 MPa (70% strain). These characteristics demonstrate that wood waste can be repurposed into an effective building material, addressing challenges in both waste management and sustainable construction

Engineering the Surface Properties of Poly(dimethylsiloxane) Utilizing Aqueous RAFT Photografting of Acrylate/Methacrylate Monomers

Polymeric surface grafting offers a tunable way to control the interfacial interactions between a material’s surface and its environment. The ability to tailor the surface properties of poly­(dimethylsiloxane) elastomer (PDMSe) substrates with functional chemistry, wettability, and roughness can enhance the fields of biofouling, microfluidics, and medical implants. We developed a reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization technique to synthesize a host of copolymers composed of acrylamide, acrylic acid, hydroxyethyl methacrylate, and (3-acrylamidopropyl)­trimethylammonium chloride with targetable molecular weight from ∼5 to 80 kg/mol and low dispersity of <i>Đ</i> ≤ 1.13. This RAFT strategy was used in conjunction with photografting to chemically engineer the surface of PDMSe with hydrophilic, hydrophobic, and anionic groups. Varying grafting time and copolymer composition allowed for targetable molecular weight, chemical functionality, and water contact angles ranging from 112° to 14°. These new material surfaces will be evaluated for their antifouling and fouling release potential

Phosphate capture enhancement using designed iron oxide-based nanostructures

Phosphates in high concentrations are harmful pollutants for the environment, and new and cheap solutions are currently needed for phosphate removal from polluted liquid media. Iron oxide nanoparticles show a promising capacity for removing phosphates from polluted media and can be easily separated from polluted media under an external magnetic field. However, they have to display a high surface area allowing high removal pollutant capacity while preserving their magnetic properties. In that context, the reproducible synthesis of magnetic iron oxide raspberry-shaped nanostructures (RSNs) by a modified polyol solvothermal method has been optimized, and the con- ditions to dope the latter with cobalt, zinc, and aluminum to improve the phosphate adsorption have been determined. These RSNs consist of oriented aggregates of iron oxide nanocrystals, providing a very high saturation magnetization and a superparamagnetic behavior that favor colloidal stability. Finally, the adsorption of phosphates as a function of pH, time, and phosphate concentration has been studied. The undoped and especially aluminum-doped RSNs were demonstrated to be very effective phosphate adsorbents, and they can be extracted from the media by applying a magnet.Instituto de Física (IF