Development of temperature-responsive polymer materials for dynamic thermal managements
Project Description
On-demand regulation of thermal conductivity (k) of polymers is crucial for many contemporary applications, such as electronic packaging, thermal interface materials, and polymer heat exchangers. For practical thermal regulation applications, it is desirable to develop polymers that show strong temperature responsive behavior in a narrow temperature window in polymers to enhance the performance of the corresponding composite materials. However, k of common polymers is small (<0.3 W/m-K) and often demonstrates weak temperature dependence which increases with (e.g., PMMA, PVA), or decreases (e.g., silicone rubber) with temperature rise. This project aims to discover novel temperature-responsive polymer materials that present a high-contrast change of k with temperature change by leveraging unique solid-solid phase transitions by bond breaking or structure deformation that results in a large change in microscopic heat carrier (phonon) scattering. By adjusting the polymer composition and structure in synthesis, we aim to achieve greater range of k control, targeting a sharp change between 0.2 to 0.8 W/m-K. Comprehensive characterization will be utilized to facilitate the iterative optimization of the materials processing and understanding of their performance.
Supervisor
ZHENG Qiye
Quota
1
Course type
UROP1000
UROP1100
UROP2100
UROP3100
UROP3200
UROP4100
Applicant's Roles
1. Working with RPG students, the applicant will participate in basic polymer synthesis experiments, such as simple free radical polymerization, physical crosslinking, and ionic crosslinking.
2. The applicant will assist in the physical and chemical property characterization of polymers across the phase transition through standard experimental approaches, such as transient hot wire for the thermal conductivity, infrared spectroscopy for chemical compositions and X-ray diffraction for material structures characterization.
2. The applicant will assist in the physical and chemical property characterization of polymers across the phase transition through standard experimental approaches, such as transient hot wire for the thermal conductivity, infrared spectroscopy for chemical compositions and X-ray diffraction for material structures characterization.
Applicant's Learning Objectives
1.The applicant will review literature and understand the basic thermal transport mechanism;
2. The applicant will master basic polymeric material preparation and characterization techniques;
3. The applicant will master experimental design and data analysis skills.
2. The applicant will master basic polymeric material preparation and characterization techniques;
3. The applicant will master experimental design and data analysis skills.
Complexity of the project
Moderate