4 research outputs found
Carbon-Bridge Incorporation in Organosilicate Coatings Using Oxidative Atmospheric Plasma Deposition
Carbon-bridges were successfully
incorporated into the molecular
structure of inorganic silicate films deposited onto polymer substrates
using an oxidative atmospheric plasma deposition process. Key process
parameters that include the precursor chemistry and delivery rate
are discussed in the context of a deposition model. The resulting
coating exhibited significantly improved adhesion and a 4-fold increase
in moisture resistance as determined from the threshold for debonding
in humid air compared to dense silica or commercial sol–gel
polysiloxane coatings. Other important parameters for obtaining highly
adhesive coating deposition on oxidation-sensitive polymer substrates
using atmospheric plasma were also investigated to fully activate
but not overoxidize the substrate. The resulting carbon molecular
bridged adhesive coating showed enhanced moisture resistance, important
for functional membrane applications
Heterogeneous Solution Deposition of High-Performance Adhesive Hybrid Films
Interfaces between organic and inorganic
materials are of critical importance to the lifetime of devices found
in microelectronic chips, organic electronics, photovoltaics, and
high-performance laminates. Hybrid organic/inorganic materials synthesized
through sol–gel processing are best suited to address these
challenges because of the intimate mixing of both components. We demonstrate
that deposition from <i>heterogeneous</i> sol–gel
solutions leads to the unique nanolength-scale control of the through-thickness
film composition and therefore the independent optimization of both
the bulk and interfacial film properties. Consequently, an outstanding
3-fold improvement in the adhesive/cohesive properties of these hybrid
films can be obtained from otherwise identical precursors
Using Unentangled Oligomers To Toughen Materials
Entanglements
between polymer chains are responsible for the strength and toughness
of polymeric materials. When the chains are too short to form entanglements,
the polymer becomes weak and brittle. Here we show that molecular
bridging of oligomers in molecular-scale confinement can dramatically
toughen materials even when intermolecular entanglements are completely
absent. We describe the fabrication of nanocomposite materials that
confine oligomer chains to molecular-scale dimensions and demonstrate
that partially confined unentangled oligomers can toughen materials
far beyond rule-of-mixtures estimates. We also characterize how partially
confined oligomers affect the kinetics of nanocomposite cracking in
moist environments and show that the presence of a backfilled oligomeric
phase within a nanoporous organosilicate matrix leads to atomistic
crack path meandering in which the failure path is preferentially
located within the matrix phase
Synthesis of Polyimides in Molecular-Scale Confinement for Low-Density Hybrid Nanocomposites
In
this work, we exploit a confinement-induced molecular synthesis
and a resulting bridging mechanism to create confined polyimide thermoset
nanocomposites that couple molecular confinement-enhanced toughening
with an unprecedented combination of high-temperature properties at
low density. We describe a synthesis strategy that involves the infiltration
of individual polymer chains through a nanoscale porous network while
simultaneous imidization reactions increase the molecular backbone
stiffness. In the extreme limit where the confinement length scale
is much smaller than the polymer’s molecular size, confinement-induced
molecular mechanisms give rise to exceptional mechanical properties.
We find that polyimide oligomers can undergo cross-linking reactions
even in such molecular-scale confinement, increasing the molecular
weight of the organic phase and toughening the nanocomposite through
a confinement-induced energy dissipation mechanism. This work demonstrates
that the confinement-induced molecular bridging mechanism can be extended
to thermoset polymers with multifunctional properties, such as excellent
thermo-oxidative stability and high service temperatures (>350
°C)