Rapid energy-efficient manufacturing of polymers and composites via frontal polymerization

Ian D. Robertson, Mostafa Yourdkhani, Polette J. Centellas, Jia En Aw, Douglas G. Ivanoff, Elyas Goli, Evan M. Lloyd, Leon M. Dean, Nancy R. Sottos, Philippe H. Geubelle, Jeffrey S. Moore and Scott R. White ()
Additional contact information
Ian D. Robertson: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Mostafa Yourdkhani: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Polette J. Centellas: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Jia En Aw: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Douglas G. Ivanoff: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Elyas Goli: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Evan M. Lloyd: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Leon M. Dean: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Nancy R. Sottos: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Philippe H. Geubelle: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Jeffrey S. Moore: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Scott R. White: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Nature, 2018, vol. 557, issue 7704, 223-227

Abstract: Abstract Thermoset polymers and composite materials are integral to today’s aerospace, automotive, marine and energy industries and will be vital to the next generation of lightweight, energy-efficient structures in these enterprises, owing to their excellent specific stiffness and strength, thermal stability and chemical resistance1–5. The manufacture of high-performance thermoset components requires the monomer to be cured at high temperatures (around 180 °C) for several hours, under a combined external pressure and internal vacuum 6 . Curing is generally accomplished using large autoclaves or ovens that scale in size with the component. Hence this traditional curing approach is slow, requires a large amount of energy and involves substantial capital investment6,7. Frontal polymerization is a promising alternative curing strategy, in which a self-propagating exothermic reaction wave transforms liquid monomers to fully cured polymers. We report here the frontal polymerization of a high-performance thermoset polymer that allows the rapid fabrication of parts with microscale features, three-dimensional printed structures and carbon-fibre-reinforced polymer composites. Precise control of the polymerization kinetics at both ambient and elevated temperatures allows stable monomer solutions to transform into fully cured polymers within seconds, reducing energy requirements and cure times by several orders of magnitude compared with conventional oven or autoclave curing approaches. The resulting polymer and composite parts possess similar mechanical properties to those cured conventionally. This curing strategy greatly improves the efficiency of manufacturing of high-performance polymers and composites, and is widely applicable to many industries.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0054-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:557:y:2018:i:7704:d:10.1038_s41586-018-0054-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0054-x

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().