CAS: Degradable Polyacrylates From Natural and Scalable Building Blocks

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: A wide variety of everyday products, ranging from diapers to glues and cosmetics, rely on a class of polymeric materials known as ‘acrylics’ to create the properties of interest. However, like many plastics, current acrylics are difficult to reuse, recycle, or degrade, causing environmental and societal problems in the long-term sustainability of these important materials. This project seeks to develop cheap and commercially available additives that can be incorporated into acrylic products in small amounts to dramatically improve their recyclability and degradability without impacting their properties, while at the same time providing broader fundamental scientific understanding. Emphasis is placed on a combination of experiments and computer simulations to provide fundamental insights into the most efficient design of these special additives. In addition, a collection of broader impact activities is planned to cultivate the next generation of scientists and engineers through the development of digital outreach activities for K-12 students and a series of interactive lectures to improve the scientific communication skills for students of all ages. In summary, improving the sustainability of acrylics and the pipeline of future leaders in society will serve the national interest by promoting progress in science with implications in economic development and national prosperity. TECHNICAL SUMMARY: The intellectual merit of this project seeks to maximize the degradability of polyacrylates through the use of natural and scalable building blocks that are commercially available and inexpensive. Specifically, two thrusts will optimize the copolymerization of 1,2-dithiolanes such as alpha-lipoic acid and ethyl lipoate with acrylate comonomers through the development of semi-batch polymerization techniques that counteract composition drift, which is characteristic of these free-radical copolymerizations. Hybrid simulation strategies that leverage the fast method-of-moments framework will be developed to enable in-silico machine learning routines for the inverse design of polymer sequence and related degradability as a function of reaction conditions. The connection between average molecular sequence, degradability, and material properties will be studied in the context of adhesive performance using a suite of characterization techniques to create a feedback loop between simulations and experiments. In addition, broader impacts activities are planned that will strengthen the pipeline of next-generation scientists and engineers. For K-12 students, the creation of a phone app will serve to complement outreach activities either in-person or fully remote and excite them about the world of polymers. For students of all ages, but with a particular emphasis on undergraduate and graduate, a series of interactive lectures will convey tried-and-true strategies for strengthening scientific communication skills, both written and oral. . This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.