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Across length scales, biology combines multifunctional materials to control material performance and enable multifunctionality and multiscale structure-property relationship. Elucidation of the underlying processes that yield the multimaterials can enable numerous advances in materials design. However, synthetic polymers often fail to capture such complex hierarchical materials. Our lab is a highly-collaborative, multidisciplinary team that harnesses the power of material science, polymer chemistry, and engineering optimization to design multifunctional materials aided by additive manufacturing.
Multimaterial Design
Emerging additive manufacturing (3D printing) technologies have the potential to bridge the gap in structural complexity between human-made and natural systems. However, current fabrication methods struggle to produce robust synthetic multimaterials with optimized performance. To address this challenge, our research leverages a fundamental understanding of structure-property relationships in polymer science to design multimaterial systems suitable for additive manufacturing. Our group aims to develop multimaterials within a one-pot system using various stimuli, achieving tailored mechanical, optical, and electrical properties.
Polymer Performance Mapping
Seeing is believing. Polymer chemistry is experimental field where a deep understanding of material behavior is crucial. Visualizing key factors, such as polymerization kinetics and material properties, is essential for advancing both fundamental research and practical applications. However, existing methods for the direct visualization of polymer material properties remain limited. Our group aims to develop a series of visualization tools for 2D and 3D representation of polymerization kinetics and material behavior. These tools will enable in situ characterization, rapid material screening, and post-curing analysis.
Lab Equipments
Chemical Hood

Rotary Evaporator

3D Printers

Dual Wavelength Printer

Keyence Microscope

FTIR Microscope

Speed Mixer

Refractometer
