This work aims to provide a better understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms driving the observed macroscopic properties of self-healing materials and is essential for more efficient design and integration of these materials into advanced multifunctional materials and adaptive structures. By combining the insights from these analyses and other characterization methods, we propose new rational strategies for the molecular design of self-healing materials, which will be highlighted in this talk. In addition, through in-situ monitoring via SAXS under dynamic mechanical loading, we investigate how these microstructures evolve via distinct mechanisms after strain and over time as the networks relax. Using small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS), we examine how the molecular design of the polymers affects their resulting microstructure. Using a model system with precise, tunable properties, we simultaneously study the effects of molecular design on the temporal characteristics and spatial morphology of the polymers and relate these changes to their macroscopic properties. Here, we present our work to address this gap in knowledge and allow for the more intelligent design of self-healing materials. While a range of self-healing materials have been reported in the literature, limited understanding exists on the specific structure-function relationships between molecular design of the polymer and optimizing its resulting macroscopic properties such as toughness, elasticity, and self-healing speed and efficiency. Self-healing materials offer a promising solution as they continuously and autonomously heal after experiencing damage, however improving self-healing abilities often results in materials with low toughness or large hysteresis. e-skin) and soft robotics requires a combination of highly conformal mechanical properties and long-term durability to withstand repeated damage from daily use. The design of robust wearable technologies (e.g. Lastly, we show that any arbitrary braid can be fabricated with our method. We also demonstrate methods based on geometry or contact line pinning to repeatedly braid fibers without disassembly. We show that it’s possible to translate, rotate, switch, and separate floats with capillary forces. Capillary forces are gentle enough to ensure wires don’t break during braiding. To braid wires, we attach them to the floats and operate the device such that the floats switch positions in a desired order to drive braid formation. Thus, we can steer the floats around simply by moving the device into or out of water. This change in force causes lateral motions of floats at the interface. As a result, when a device is moved through the air/water interface, the shape of the meniscus and thus the capillary forces change. We designed the channels to change shape along the vertical axis. This method relies on repulsive capillary forces to effectively trap and move small floating objects (“floats”) at the air/water interface inside designated channels of our devices. Here we demonstrate a gentle yet robust method to programmatically assemble nanoscale and microscale fibers into arbitrary braid topologies. Moreover, the complexity of braid topologies makes it extremely difficult to self-assemble braids. Such thin fibers suffer from easy breakage when handled by mechanical braiding machines. However, although nanoscale and microscale braids are expected to show interesting mechanical and electric properties, braiding them remains challenging. Braids have been used for centuries to enhance the material properties of fibers.
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