Dr. Anthony Stender
A new research article appearing in Materials Today includes a contribution from Dr. Anthony Stender titled “High stiffness polymer composite with tunable transparency.”
The paper characterizes the properties of a composite polymer under changing temperature conditions, and the work was for a project led by Pulickel Ajayan and Chandra Sekhar Tiwary at Rice University.
Stender is Assistant Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Ohio University.
“I was approached by a colleague who needed assistance acquiring some additional data,” Stender explained. “Dr. Tiwary was using a battery of materials science tests to study a rugged polymer, and his team realized that it also had interesting optical properties. They knew a discussion of the optical properties would be a valuable contribution to the project. The challenge on my part was to monitor the optical properties of the polymer at different temperatures. My collaborators believe this polymer can be used as a protective coating on windows due to its high stiffness, but in order to use it like that, obviously you want to have a transparent coating. At room temperature, the polymer is opaque.”
When asked how this research fits in with his own research plans, Stender replied, “I’m primarily interested in studying materials using a combination of imaging and spectroscopy tools. I find it fascinating to study how illumination wavelength or temperature can affect the optical properties of materials. My role in this project is a great example of the types of work I anticipate doing more of in the future with my research group, whether it’s looking at polymers, particles, or other types of materials.”
Abstract: Biological materials are multifunctional performing more than one function in a perfect synergy. These materials are built from fairly simple and limited components at ambient conditions. Such judicious designs have proven elusive for synthetic materials. Here, we demonstrate a multifunctional phase change (pc) composite from simple building blocks, which exhibits high stiffness and optical transmittance control. We show an increase of more than one order of magnitude in stiffness when we embed paraffin wax spheres into an elastomer matrix, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) in a dynamic compression test. High stiffness is mainly influenced by presence of microcrystals within the wax. We further show fast temperature-controlled optical switching of the composite for an unlimited number of cycles without any noticeable mechanical degradation. Through experimental and finite element method, we show high energy absorption capability of pc-composite. Based on these properties, the pc-composite could be used as an effective coating on glasses for cars and windows. This simple approach to multi-functionality is exciting and could pave way for designs of other multifunctional materials at the macro-scale.
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