The innovation engine for new materials

Coupling Formulation and Processability for the Design and Manufacture of Polymeric Materials

Seminar Group: 

Speaker: 

Dr. Blair K. Brettmann

Address: 

School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; School of Materials Science and Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology

Date: 

Friday, April 8, 2022 - 11:00am

Location: 

ESB 1001

Host: 

Prof. Michael Chabinyc
While progress has been made in customizing the shape of material goods through advanced manufacturing processes, customizing the properties of the materials is still a slow development process. A major factor slowing materials customization is understanding the interactions between components in complex mixtures used to make functional products and, especially, how those interactions impact manufacturability. Our research integrates materialsrheology and processing to enable manufacturing innovation practices that integrate the materials needed for manufacturability early in a product design process. The link between materials and rheology is frequently studied, but is complex due to multicomponent mixtures. The link between rheology and processing is standard for polymer manufacturing, but engineers cannot pull a “rheology” off of a shelf, they must select a set of chemicals. Thus, to meaningfully decrease time to production, a faster link between materials and processing must be made. Specific advances tying solution properties to electrospinability via extensional rheology and tying particle and polymer properties in a high solids suspension to 3D printability through shear rheology will be discussed. This work provides the foundation to decrease the time to production and enable materials customization by integrating formulation for processing into early stages of development using fundamental chemistry-processing relationships.