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Rapp J, Borden MA, Bhat V, Sarabia A, Leibfarth FA. Continuous Polymer Synthesis and Manufacturing of Polyurethane Elastomers Enabled by Automation. ACS POLYMERS AU 2024; 4:120-127. [PMID: 38618002 PMCID: PMC11010252 DOI: 10.1021/acspolymersau.3c00033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2023] [Revised: 01/02/2024] [Accepted: 01/03/2024] [Indexed: 04/16/2024]
Abstract
Connecting polymer synthesis and processing is an important challenge for streamlining the manufacturing of polymeric materials. In this work, the automated synthesis of acrylate-capped polyurethane oligomers is integrated with vat photopolymerization 3D printing. This strategy enabled the rapid manufacturing of a library of polyurethane-based elastomeric materials with differentiated thermal and mechanical properties. The automated semicontinuous batch synthesis approach proved enabling for resins with otherwise short shelf lives because of the intimate connection between synthesis, formulation, and processing. Structure-property studies demonstrated the ability to tune properties through systematic alteration of cross-link density and chemical composition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johann
L. Rapp
- Department of Chemistry, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514, United States
| | - Meredith A. Borden
- Department of Chemistry, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514, United States
| | - Vittal Bhat
- Department of Chemistry, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514, United States
| | - Alexis Sarabia
- Department of Chemistry, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514, United States
| | - Frank A. Leibfarth
- Department of Chemistry, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514, United States
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2
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Day EC, Chittari SS, Bogen MP, Knight AS. Navigating the Expansive Landscapes of Soft Materials: A User Guide for High-Throughput Workflows. ACS POLYMERS AU 2023; 3:406-427. [PMID: 38107416 PMCID: PMC10722570 DOI: 10.1021/acspolymersau.3c00025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2023] [Revised: 11/02/2023] [Accepted: 11/07/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
Synthetic polymers are highly customizable with tailored structures and functionality, yet this versatility generates challenges in the design of advanced materials due to the size and complexity of the design space. Thus, exploration and optimization of polymer properties using combinatorial libraries has become increasingly common, which requires careful selection of synthetic strategies, characterization techniques, and rapid processing workflows to obtain fundamental principles from these large data sets. Herein, we provide guidelines for strategic design of macromolecule libraries and workflows to efficiently navigate these high-dimensional design spaces. We describe synthetic methods for multiple library sizes and structures as well as characterization methods to rapidly generate data sets, including tools that can be adapted from biological workflows. We further highlight relevant insights from statistics and machine learning to aid in data featurization, representation, and analysis. This Perspective acts as a "user guide" for researchers interested in leveraging high-throughput screening toward the design of multifunctional polymers and predictive modeling of structure-property relationships in soft materials.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Matthew P. Bogen
- Department of Chemistry, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
| | - Abigail S. Knight
- Department of Chemistry, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
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3
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Kusters GLA, Zhang G, Chen Z, Suo Z. Amphiphilic monomers bridge hydrophobic polymers and water. SOFT MATTER 2023. [PMID: 38031662 DOI: 10.1039/d3sm01129a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2023]
Abstract
Water dissolves a hydrophilic polymer, but not a hydrophobic polymer. Many monomers of hydrophilic polymers, however, are amphiphilic, with a hydrophobic vinyl group for radical polymerization, as well as a hydrophilic group. Consequently, such an amphiphilic monomer may form solutions with both water and hydrophobic polymers. Ternary mixtures of amphiphilic monomer, hydrophobic polymer, and water have recently been used as precursors for interpenetrating polymer networks of hydrophilic polymers and hydrophobic polymers of unusual properties. However, the phase behavior of the ternary mixtures of amphiphilic monomer, hydrophobic polymer, and water themselves has not been studied. Here we mix the amphiphilic monomer acrylic acid, the hydrophobic polymer poly(methyl methacrylate), and water. In the mixture, the hydrophobic polymer can form various morphologies, including solution, micelle, gel, and polymer glass. We interpret these findings by invoking that the hydrophobic and hydrophilic groups of the amphiphilic monomer enable it to function as a bridge. That is, the hydrophobic functional group binds with the hydrophobic polymer, and the hydrophilic functional group binds with water. This picture leads to a simple modification to the Flory-Huggins theory, which agrees well with our experimental data. Amphiphilic monomers offer a rich area for further study for scientific insight, as well as for expanding opportunities to develop materials of self-assembled structures with unusual properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guido L A Kusters
- John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, MA 02138, USA.
- Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven 5612AZ, The Netherlands
| | - Guogao Zhang
- John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, MA 02138, USA.
| | - Zheqi Chen
- John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, MA 02138, USA.
- College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Zhigang Suo
- John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, MA 02138, USA.
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4
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Edwards CER, Lakkis KL, Luo Y, Helgeson ME. Coacervate or precipitate? Formation of non-equilibrium microstructures in coacervate emulsions. SOFT MATTER 2023; 19:8849-8862. [PMID: 37947798 DOI: 10.1039/d3sm00901g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2023]
Abstract
Non-equilibrium processing of aqueous polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) coacervates is critical to many applications. In particular, many coacervate-forming systems are known to become trapped in out-of-equilibrium states (e.g., precipitation). The mechanism and conditions under which these states form, and whether they age, is not clearly understood. Here, we elucidate the influence of processing on the PEC coarsening mechanism as it varies with flow during mixing for a model system of poly(allylamine hydrochloride) and poly(acrylic acid sodium salt) in water. We demonstrate that flow conditions can be used to toggle the formation of rough, precipitate-like aggregates of micron-scale PEC structures. These structures form at compositions with viscous-dominant equilibrium rheology, and observations of their formation via optical microscopy suggest that they comprise colloidal aggregates of PEC coacervate droplets. We further show that these aggregates exhibit micron-scale coarsening, with a mixing time-dependent characteristic aging time scale. The results show that the formation of precipitate-like structures is not solely determined by composition, but is instead highly sensitive to mass transport and colloidal instability effects. Our observations suggest that the details of mixing flow can provide non-equilibrium structural control of a broad range of PEC coacervate materials orthogonally to structure-property inspired polymeric design. We anticipate that these findings will open the door for future studies on the control of non-equilibrium PEC formation and structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chelsea E R Edwards
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5080, USA.
- Materials Research Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
| | - Kareem L Lakkis
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5080, USA.
| | - Yimin Luo
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5080, USA.
- Materials Research Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
| | - Matthew E Helgeson
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5080, USA.
- Materials Research Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
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5
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Sinha NJ, Cunha KC, Murphy R, Hawker CJ, Shea JE, Helgeson ME. Competition between β-Sheet and Coacervate Domains Yields Diverse Morphologies in Mixtures of Oppositely Charged Homochiral Polypeptides. Biomacromolecules 2023; 24:3580-3588. [PMID: 37486022 DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.3c00361] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/25/2023]
Abstract
Biomolecular assembly processes involving competition between specific intermolecular interactions and thermodynamic phase instability have been implicated in a number of pathological states and technological applications of biomaterials. As a model for such processes, aqueous mixtures of oppositely charged homochiral polypeptides such as poly-l-lysine and poly-l-glutamic acid have been reported to form either β-sheet-rich solid-like precipitates or liquid-like coacervate droplets depending on competing hydrogen bonding interactions. Herein, we report studies of polypeptide mixtures that reveal unexpectedly diverse morphologies ranging from partially coalescing and aggregated droplets to bulk precipitates, as well as a previously unreported re-entrant liquid-liquid phase separation at high polypeptide concentration and ionic strength. Combining our experimental results with all-atom molecular dynamics simulations of folded polypeptide complexes reveals a concentration dependence of β-sheet-rich secondary structure, whose relative composition correlates with the observed macroscale morphologies of the mixtures. These results elucidate a crucial balance of interactions that are important for controlling morphology during coacervation in these and potentially similar biologically relevant systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nairiti J Sinha
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
- Materials Department and Materials Research Laboratory, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Keila Cristina Cunha
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Robert Murphy
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Craig J Hawker
- Materials Department and Materials Research Laboratory, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Joan-Emma Shea
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Matthew E Helgeson
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
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Conrad N, Chang G, Fygenson DK, Saleh OA. Emulsion imaging of a DNA nanostar condensate phase diagram reveals valence and electrostatic effects. J Chem Phys 2022; 157:234203. [PMID: 36550026 DOI: 10.1063/5.0130808] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) in macromolecular solutions (e.g., coacervation) is relevant both to technology and to the process of mesoscale structure formation in cells. The LLPS process is characterized by a phase diagram, i.e., binodal lines in the temperature/concentration plane, which must be quantified to predict the system's behavior. Experimentally, this can be difficult due to complications in handling the dense macromolecular phase. Here, we develop a method for accurately quantifying the phase diagram without direct handling: We confine the sample within micron-scale, water-in-oil emulsion droplets and then use precision fluorescent imaging to measure the volume fraction of the condensate within the droplet. We find that this volume fraction grows linearly with macromolecule concentration; thus, by applying the lever rule, we can directly extract the dense and dilute binodal concentrations. We use this approach to study a model LLPS system of self-assembled, fixed-valence DNA particles termed nanostars (NSs). We find that temperature/concentration phase diagrams of NSs display, with certain exceptions, a larger co-existence regime upon increasing salt or valence, in line with expectations. Aspects of the measured phase behavior validate recent predictions that account for the role of valence in modulating the connectivity of the condensed phase. Generally, our results on NS phase diagrams give fundamental insight into limited-valence phase separation, while the method we have developed will likely be useful in the study of other LLPS systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathaniel Conrad
- Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
| | - Grace Chang
- Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
| | - Deborah K Fygenson
- Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
| | - Omar A Saleh
- Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
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7
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Nguyen M, Sherck N, Shen K, Edwards CER, Yoo B, Köhler S, Speros JC, Helgeson ME, Delaney KT, Shell MS, Fredrickson GH. Predicting Polyelectrolyte Coacervation from a Molecularly Informed Field-Theoretic Model. Macromolecules 2022. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.2c01759] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- My Nguyen
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Nicholas Sherck
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Kevin Shen
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Chelsea E. R. Edwards
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
- Materials Research Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Brian Yoo
- BASF Corporation, Tarrytown, New York 10591, United States
| | | | - Joshua C. Speros
- California Research Alliance (CARA) by BASF, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Matthew E. Helgeson
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
- Materials Research Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Kris T. Delaney
- Materials Research Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - M. Scott Shell
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Glenn H. Fredrickson
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
- Materials Research Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
- Department of Materials, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
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