Nanoporous Polymer
Films Made by Mechanical Deformation
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Research in this area focuses on the structural properties, formation mechanisms, and thermal stability of free-standing nanoporous polymer films. Through large-scale Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations, this work reveals how highly entangled polymer melts undergo void formation during macroscopic mechanical deformation and are subsequently stabilized via a thermal quench into the glassy state. |
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Entanglement-Stabilized Nanoporous Morphologies: Developing a simulation-guided protocol for creating template-free, free-standing nanoporous materials via biaxial deformation above Tg. The porous structure is stabilized by cooling belowTg while the voids are kept due to entanglement constraints, providing a purely physical manufacturing route successfully validated through experimental implementation with highly entangled polystyrene films.
"Entanglement-Stabilized Nanoporous Polymer Films Made by Mechanical Deformation", Macromolecules 57, 2998-3012 (2024).
"Free standing dry and stable nanoporous polymer films made through mechanical deformation" , Adv. Sci. 2207472 (2023).
- Structural Stability and Chain Segregation in Polydisperse Networks: Investigating how thin nanoporous films remain structurally stable under chain length polydispersity, revealing that long chains span across multiple pores to maintain the overall network morphology while short chains segregate into the bulk matrix to minimize conformational constraints.
"Stable polydisperse free-standing porous films made by mechanical deformation", Soft Matter, 20, 6779-6790 (2024).