Collaborative Research: Interfacial Self-healing of Nanocomposite Hydrogels

合作研究：纳米复合水凝胶的界面自修复

• 批准号: 2314424
• 负责人: Ying Li
• 金额: $ 23.36万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-10-01 至 2023-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2314424&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Interfacial; Self; healing

Self-healing polymers are synthetic materials capable of autonomously repairing damages without human intervention. They have shown great potentials for sustainable technologies in diverse engineering applications, including artificial muscles and skins, flexible electronics, soft robotics and many others. Nevertheless, the state-of-the-art design of self-healing polymers remains at the trial-and-error stage with insufficient theoretical guidance. This award supports fundamental research to elucidate the self-healing mechanics of nanocomposite hydrogels that consist of water-mediated polymer networks crosslinked by nanoparticles. The knowledge obtained from this project will provide mechanistic insights into self-healing polymers that are able to restore their functionality after damage. The research will not only promote the fundamental science of self-healing mechanics, but also advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare through further development and enhancement of soft-materials based sustainable technologies. This project will also train a diverse group of students in the areas of solid mechanics, polymer science, mechanical engineering, and high-performance computing for next-generation workforce development. The educational objectives of the project will be realized through curriculum development, undergraduate research opportunities, summer research program for high school students, research experience for K-12 teachers program, and K-12 outreach program. Special efforts will be made to involve underrepresented students in this project. Despite extensive studies in the syntheses and applications of self-healing polymers, constructing the mechanistic relationship between self-healing properties and material/healing settings remains challenging. The key technical barrier is how to physically model the microstructure evolution of the polymer networks during the self-healing process. The central hypothesis of this project is that the self-healing strength of nanocomposite hydrogel is governed by the diffusion of polymer chains across the fractured interface and subsequent crosslinks formed with nanoparticles. To test this hypothesis, the project integrates molecular dynamics simulations and analytical theories to study microscopic diffusion-reaction behaviors of polymer chains during self-healing process and macroscopic interfacial strengths after self-healing. The computational and theoretical predictions will be systematically validated with experimental studies of nanocomposite hydrogels composed of several material compositions, such as particle concentration, particle size, and water fraction, and under various external healing controls, such as temperature and delaying time. The interdisciplinary effort will open promising avenues for quantitatively understanding the multiscale mechanics of self-healing polymers and providing fundamental design principles of high-performance self-healing polymers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

自我修复聚合物是合成材料，能够自主修复损害而无需人工干预。他们在各种工程应用中显示了可持续技术的巨大潜力，包括人造肌肉和皮肤，灵活的电子，软机器人技术等。然而，自我修复聚合物的最新设计仍在试用阶段，理论指导不足。该奖项支持基础研究，以阐明由纳米颗粒交联的水介导的聚合物网络组成的纳米复合水凝胶的自我修复力学。从该项目中获得的知识将提供对自我修复聚合物的机械见解，这些聚合物能够在破坏后恢复其功能。这项研究不仅将促进自我修复机制的基本科学，而且还将通过进一步发展和增强基于软材料的可持续技术来促进国家健康，繁荣和福利。该项目还将在固体力学，聚合物科学，机械工程和高性能计算方面培训一群学生，以进行下一代劳动力发展。该项目的教育目标将通过课程开发，本科研究机会，高中生的夏季研究计划，K-12教师计划的研究经验和K-12外展计划来实现。将要做出特别的努力，使代表性不足的学生参与该项目。尽管在自我修复聚合物的合成和应用中进行了广泛的研究，但在自我修复特性与材料/康复环境之间建立机械关系仍然具有挑战性。关键的技术障碍是如何在自我修复过程中对聚合物网络的微观结构演变进行物理建模。该项目的中心假设是，纳米复合水凝胶的自我修复强度受聚合物链在断裂的界面中的扩散以及随后用纳米颗粒形成的交联。为了检验这一假设，该项目将分子动力学模拟和分析理论整合在一起，以研究自我修复过程中聚合物链的微观扩散反应行为和自我修复后的宏观界面强度。计算和理论预测将通过纳米复合水凝胶的实验研究系统验证，该凝胶由多种材料组成，例如颗粒浓度，粒度和水分分数，以及在各种外部愈合控制下，例如温度和延迟时间。跨学科的工作将开放有希望的途径，以定量了解自我修复聚合物的多尺度机制，并提供高性能自我修复聚合物的基本设计原则。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过基金会的知识分子优点和广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务。

项目成果

Interplay between entanglement and crosslinking in determining mechanical behaviors of polymer networks

• DOI: 10.1080/19475411.2023.2261777
• 发表时间: 2023-09
• 期刊: International Journal of Smart and Nano Materials
• 影响因子: 3.9
• 作者: Yuhao Liu;Weikang Xian;Jinlong He;Ying Li