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An Exploratory Microfluidic Approach to Photopolymerized Polymer‐Inorganic Nanocomposite Films
Author(s) -
Rajendra Vinodh,
TherienAubin Héloise,
Abolhasani Milad,
Villalabos Marco,
Kumacheva Eugenia
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
macromolecular materials and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.913
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1439-2054
pISSN - 1438-7492
DOI - 10.1002/mame.201500221
Subject(s) - materials science , nanocomposite , monomer , polymer , microfluidics , chemical engineering , nanoparticle , inert , evaporation , nanotechnology , composite material , organic chemistry , chemistry , physics , engineering , thermodynamics
Nanoparticle (NP) dispersions are extensively used for the producing nanocomposite materials. Optimization of formulations of NP dispersions is a time‐ and labor‐consuming process that can benefit from high‐throughput preparation of composite materials, followed by studies of their structure–property relationships. This paper describes a microfluidic platform for producing photopolymerized films from NP–monomer dispersions. The platform enables rapid and reproducible preparation of films with varying compositions by tuning the flow rates of the monomer and NP–monomer mixtures, along with suppressed evaporation of volatile monomers, no need of an inert atmosphere, and the reduced exposure to potentially harmful monomers and NPs. This work paves the way for efficient studies of composition‐dependent properties of nanocomposite materials.