Abstract:
A deposition system has a reservoir of a material to be deposited, the material having fibers, a print head having a mixer to generate a mixed flow of the materials having fibers, a flow focusing section arranged to cause short fibers to align inside the print head, and an outlet of the print head to allow the material to be deposited on a substrate, and a controller to actuate the print head to control an orientation of the print head relative to a substrate to cause longer fibers to align external to the print head. A deposition system includes a reservoir of a material to be deposited, the material having fibers, a print head connected to the reservoir of material by a conduit, the print head having an exit nozzle and an actuator, the actuator to control the orientation of the exit nozzle relative to a substrate.
Abstract:
A method to produce a polymer gel includes dissolving precursors in a solvent to form a precursor solution, the precursors including polymer precursors, a stable free radical, one or more initiating radicals, and one or more stable free radical control agents, and heating the precursor solution to a temperature of polymerization to produce a cross-linked gel. A dried polymer aerogel has a Brunauer-Emmett Teller (BET) surface area over 100 m2/g, porosity of greater than 10%, visible transparency greater than 20%, color rendering index of over 20%, and average pore size of less than 100 nm.
Abstract:
A pair of bonded substrates having a first substrate of a first material, a second substrate of the first material, and an adhesive bonding the first substrate to the second substrate, wherein the adhesive has chemically linked compatibilizing particles compatible with the first and second substrates. A composition of matter has an adhesive having a chemically linked particle network forming a bond between a first substrate and a second substrate, wherein compatibilizing particles in the particle network are compatible with the first and second substrates. A method of joining two structures of identical materials includes preparing first and second structures to expose bare material, applying an adhesive to the bare material on the first and second structures, the adhesive containing compatibilizing particles compatible with the material and the preparing allows interaction between the material and the compatibilizing particles, and curing the adhesive.
Abstract:
A sensor has a transparent polymer aerogel, and sensing materials dispersed into the transparent, polymer aerogel, where the sensing materials change color in response to environmental conditions. A method of forming a sensor includes providing a substrate, forming a polymer aerogel layer on the substrate, and infusing the polymer aerogel layer with sensing molecules.
Abstract:
A bilayer object consisting of a carbon fiber reinforced polymer substrate coated with a composition of matter comprising horizontally aligned exfoliated graphene sheets dispersed in an epoxy binder. A method includes depositing graphene into a hardener, mixing the hardener and the graphene to produce a homogenous composite mixture, adding a resin material to the composite mixture to produce an epoxy graphene material, coating a structure with the epoxy graphene material, aligning the graphene sheets in the in-plane orientation, and curing the epoxy graphene material.
Abstract:
A system to fabricate hierarchical graded materials includes a reservoir to contain a material to be deposited, a print head connected to the reservoir to allow the print head to receive the material to be deposited, the print head having a mixing section, and an actuator connected to the print head, the actuator configured to actuate the print head in six axes of motion.
Abstract:
A method of forming a colorimetric sensor includes depositing a first material onto a substrate, providing porous sensing particles, wherein the sensing particles comprise sensing species dispersed into a porous host structure, and embedding the porous sensing particles onto a surface of the deposited first material, the first material attaching the sensing particles to the substrate with at least a portion of the sensing particles is exposed to an ambient environment.
Abstract:
A method of forming a porous, polymer aerogel, includes producing a miscible formulation of at least one of monomers, oligomers, crosslinkers and prepolymers, polymerizing the miscible formulation to form a multiphasic gel, wherein phases are continuous and the multiphasic gel has at least one depolymerizable domain and at least one non-depolymerizable domain, and the at least one depolymerizable domain is chemically bonded to the at least one non-depolymerizable domain, and removing the depolymerizable domain or domains from the multiphasic gel to produce a porous aerogel with a color rendering index of at least 25. A method of forming a porous, polymer aerogel, including producing a miscible formulation of at least one monomer, oligomer or crosslinker, and a prepolymer having at least one reactive functional group, polymerizing the miscible formulation to form a multiphasic gel, wherein the prepolymer having at least one reactive functional group is chemically bonded to a polymer that results from the polymerization of the at least one monomer or oligomer, and phases are continuous and the multiphasic gel has at least one depolymerizable domain bonded to at least one non-depolymerizable domain, and placing the multiphasic gel in a depolymerization solution having a depolymerization solvent to chemically degrade the depolymerizable domain into smaller oligomers and monomers, removing the depolymerization solvent to produce a porous aerogel with a color rendering index of at least 25.
Abstract:
A method of manufacturing includes producing a powder resin comprising a polymer precursor and a thermal initiator, packing a fiber structure with the powder resin, resulting in a resin-packed structure, and heating the resin-packed structure to a curing temperature high enough to melt and cure the resin-packed structure to form a final structure.
Abstract:
A composition of matter includes a first compatible material having particles containing chemical elements similar to a first substrate, and second compatible material having particles containing chemical elements similar to a second substrate, wherein the first substrate and the second substrate are chemically different. The particles are dispersed into a matrix that is in between the first and the second substrate. A deposition system has a multi-material printhead, a first reservoir of a first compatible material having particles containing chemical elements similar to a first substrate, a second reservoir of a second compatible material having particles containing chemical elements similar to a second substrate, a third reservoir of an polymer precursor material, and at least one mixer. A method of bonding a joint between dissimilar substrate materials includes functionalizing a first compatible material having chemical elements similar to a first substrate, mixing the first compatible material with a polymer precursor material, functionalizing a second compatible material having chemical elements similar to a second substrate, mixing the second compatible material with a polymer precursor material, and using the deposition system to deposit the first and second compatible materials and a polymer precursor material on the joint between the first and second substrate materials.