Developing resilient soft materials optimized for load-bearing and toughness is a long-standing challenge which, if solved, could enable the design of advanced resins, fabrics, packages, separation technologies, and tissue replacements. Inspired by the graded and hierarchical s tructures of natural marine materials, this IRG aims to (i) develop new strategies for materials processing that integrate precise, discrete polymer chemistries with non-equilibrium processing methods to achieve controlled multi•phase and interfacial structure, (ii) understand the interactions and mechanics of internal interfaces in these materials, and (iii) establish the multiscale structure-property relationships to provide the foundational design rules for creating new classes of versatile, multi phase soft materials.
IRG-3: Weekly on Thursdays at 1:00pm. Contact Megan Valentine for Zoom information during the COVID pandemic.
IRG MEMBERS:
Megan Valentine (Co-Leader) | Mechanical Eng. |
Matthew Helgeson (Co-Leader) | Chemical Eng. |
Brad Chmelka | Chemical Eng. |
Glenn Fredrickson | Chemical Eng. / Materials |
Craig Hawker | Chemistry, Materials |
Robert McMeeking | Mechanical Eng. / Materials |
Angela Pitenis | Materials |
Joan-Emma Shea | Chemistry / Physics |
J. Herbert Waite | MCDB / Chemistry / BMSE |
IRG AFFILIATES:
Chris Bates | Materials |
Jamie Booth | California State University, Northridge |
Noy Cohen | Technion, Israel |
Claus Eisenbach | University of Stuttgart, Germany |
Javier Read de Alaniz | Chemistry |