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Synthesis parameters of chemically and structurally tailorable macromolecular grafted-through polymer networks
Dissertation   Open access

Synthesis parameters of chemically and structurally tailorable macromolecular grafted-through polymer networks

Jessica Ann Weaver
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
Jun 2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00000410
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Abstract

Engineering
Polymer networks have enormous potential for solving many materials engineering challenges in fields such as biomedicine, soft electronics, actuation, and additive-manufacturing. Application-relevant networks, however, are still hindered by poor performance, requiring strength enhancing modifications, or by a limited set of molecular-level dials to control network microstructure for tailored properties and function. For these key reasons, new synthetic approaches are an ongoing need in polymer network engineering, especially those which can impart multi-scale control of structure and architecture, along with, additional parameters for enhancing and controlling physiochemical properties. Macromolecular polymer networks (MPNs), or polymer networks derived themselves from macroscale polymeric building blocks, are a relatively new class of material desired for their high degree of chemical and structural tailorability. In this dissertation, three completely new macromolecular polymer networks possessing enhanced structural tailorability were synthesized and systematically studied to determine the effects of these structures on morphology, viscoelasticity, and thermal behavior. Overall, this knowledge was used to assess the effectiveness of newly applied grafting-through approaches in macroscale polymer network design.

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