Acquisition of a Mechanical Tester on Miniature Samples for the Development of Unprecedented Polymer Materials with Unique Mechanical Response and Mechanical Behavior
Abstract
The proposed acquisition of a mechanical tester is to systematically study the mechanical response and mechanical behaviors of two unconventional types of polymeric materials we have developed with support from ARO. Polymers with high mechanical performance and unusual mechanical behaviors are highly attractive for DoD relevant applications requiring light-weight materials with high impact-resistance, high fracture toughness, and/or active response to detrimental stress. We recently developed a transformative class of mechanically responsive polymers consisting of closely coupled non-scissile mechanophore repeat units, which undergo continuous macromolecular rearrangement to drastically change a whole array of material properties, molecular characteristics, and nanoscale morphologies, in response to applied stress. We are significantly expanding such polymer systems, where stress triggers cascade and amplified mechanochemical activations to significantly elongate the polymer contour length, and additionally the generated conjugated structures spontaneously aggregate. These unique features are expected to result in extraordinary mechanical behaviors, such as transformation toughening, impact/fracture resistance, self-strengthening in various bulk and composite materials incorporating such specialty polymers. In another area, we developed unusual rigid ladder polymers from readily available chemicals. We plan to explore the mechanical properties for blends of ladder and linear polymers. This instrument will allow us to correlate the unique molecular and nanoscale features with macroscopic mechanical properties across multiple length scales and dimensions to develop polymers with unique stress-dependent mechanical response and behaviors.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Apr 22, 2019
- Source ID
- W911NF1910252
Entities
People
- Yan Xia
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Stanford University
- United States Army