HARNESSING STRUCTURE – PROPERTY RELATIONSHIPS FOR ADVANCED POLYMER MATERIALS
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Polymeric materials are becoming increasingly pervasive in society, enabling great technological developments in food safety, medicine, and transportation, among many others. Continued innovation in these fields relies on advancements in the understanding and effective use of polymer structure–property relationships. Furthermore, the sustained production of these materials results in an inevitable accumulation of plastic waste. Strategies towards waste reduction and reutilization are critical to the longevity of these processes and the planet. This dissertation details investigation into a new method for employing structure–property relationships in the synthesis and valorization of commodity materials. Novel synthetic techniques and polymeric properties are also explored. Chapter 1 defines our perspective on advances in value-added techniques for one of the most ubiquitous commodity plastics, high density polyethylene (HDPE). Chapter 2 describes the use of machine learning to map the structure–property relationship between HDPE molecular weight distributions and polymer properties, ultimately enabling the synthesis of materials with targeted properties and the valorization of post-consumer waste plastic. Chapter 3 is an exploration into the adhesive properties of acrylate-vinyl ether copolymers as a replacement for commercial pressure sensitive adhesives. Finally, Chapter 4 discusses the synthesis of thermosets using light titration, expanding on work generating one pot, one wavelength multi-materials.