Structural batteries (SBs) are a growing research subject worldwide. The idea is to provide massless energy by using a multifunctional material. This technology can provide a new pathway in electrification and offer different design opportunities and significant weight savings in vehicle applications. The type of SB discussed here is a multifunctional material that can carry mechanical loads and simultaneously provide an energy storage function. It is a composite material that utilizes carbon fibers (CFs) as electrodes and structural reinforcement which are embedded in a multifunctional polymer matrix (i.e., structural battery electrolyte). A feasible composite manufacturing method still needs to be developed to realize a full-cell SB. UV initiated polymerization induced phase separation (PIPS) has previously been used to make bicontinuous structural battery electrolytes (SBE) with good ionic conductivity and mechanical performance. However, UV-curing cannot be used for fabrication of a full cell SB since a full-cell is made of multiple layers of nontransparent CFs. The present paper investigates thermally initiated PIPS to prepare a bicontinuous SBE and an SB half-cell. In addition, the effect of curing temperature was examined with respect to curing performance, morphology, ionic conductivity, and mechanical and electrochemical performance. The study revealed that thermally initiated PIPS provides a robust and scalable process route to fabricate SBs. The results of this study are an important milestone in the development of SB technology as they allow for the SB fabrication for an actual application. However, other challenges still remain to be solved before this technology can be introduced into an application.

The increased environmental awareness has driven academia and industry to utilize environmentally benign sources. An industrially available process that is effective in the coatings industry is the coil-coating process where sheet steel can be pre-coated. During this process volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are generated and incinerated for energy recovery. One way to minimize VOCs is to use a reactive diluent i.e. a molecule that acts both as a solvent as well as chemically react into the final coating upon curing. Fatty acid methyl esters obtained from renewable resources such as vegetable oils are suitable candidates as reactive diluents. In this paper epoxidized fatty acid methyl esters (e-FAMEs) obtained from epoxidized linseed oil where compared with fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) obtained from rapeseed oil as reactive diluents in coil-coating formulations. Coil-coating formulations were followed by real-time Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (RT-FTIR) in order to evaluate the e-FAMEs or the FAMEs reactivity in the coating system. In addition, coil-coating formulation containing e-FAME or FAME where cured in a pilot scale simulated coil-coating process. Moreover, thermal properties of the final coatings were evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).

Reduced mass for improvements in system performance has become a priority for a wide range of applications that requires electrical energy and includes load-bearing components. Use of lightweight materials has been identified as key for successful electrification of future transport solutions. Structure, energy storage and energy distribution are usually subsystems with the highest mass contributions but energy storage and energy distribution devices are structurally parasitic. One creative path forward is to develop composite materials that perform several functions at the same time – multifunctional materials. Combining functions in a single material entity will enable substantial weight savings on the systems level.

One such concept is a structural battery, a material that simultaneously carry load and stores energy like a battery. Structural batteries employ carbon fibres as structural reinforcement and negative electrode and can also be used as current collectors to save additional weight.

A number of new physical phenomena when using carbon fibres as battery electrodes have been found which allows for further multi-functionality. These are all based on the fact that carbon fibres intercalated lithium ions as an electrode material. The ion intercalation creates a reversible longitudinal expansion of the carbon fibres which could be used for actuation and morphing. A piezo electrochemical effect couples the electrical potential of the fibre to the strain acting on it, which can be used for sensing purposes. By combining the expansion and the piezo electrochemical effect one can convert mechanical energy to electrochemical energy, providing an energy harvesting function. The long-term vision of this work is to create a composite material that carries load, stores electrical energy, senses its own state, morphs and harvests energy.

This work demonstrates a versatile and environmentally friendly route for the development of new orthogonal monomers that can be used for postfunctionalizable polymer networks. A monomer containing both vinyl ether (VE) and cyclic disulfide moieties was synthesized via enzyme catalysis under benign reaction conditions. The bifunctional monomer could be polymerized to form macromolecues with differing architectures by the use of either cationic or radical photo polymerization. When cationic polymerization was performed, a linear polymer was obtained with pendant disulfide units in the side chain, whereas in the presence of radical initiator, the VE reacted with the disulfide to yield a branched structure. The monomer was thereafter used to design networks that could be postfunctionalized; the monomer was cross-linked with cationic initiation together with a difunctional VE oligomer and after cross-linking the unreacted disulfides were coupled to RhodamineVE by radical UV-initiation.

Enzyme catalyzed synthesis of renewable polyamides was investigated using Candida antarctica lipase B. A fatty acid-derived AB-type functional monomer, having one amine and one methyl ester functionality, was homopolymerized at 80 and 140 °C. Additionally, the organobase 1,5,7-triazabicyclo[4.4.0]dec-5-ene (TBD) was used as a catalyst. The results from the two catalysts were comparable. However, the amount of lipase added was 1.2 × 10³ times lower, showing that the lipase was a more efficient catalyst for this system as compared to TBD. Moreover, the AB-type monomer was copolymerized with 1,12-diaminododecane to synthesize oligoamides of two different lengths.

The mechanical properties of hydrogels are of importance in many applications, including scaffolds and drug delivery vehicles where the release of drugs is controlled by water transport. While the macroscopic mechanical properties of hydrogels have been reported frequently, there are less studies devoted to the equally important nanomechanical response to local load and shear. Scanning probe methods offer the possibility to gain insight on surface nanomechanical properties with high spatial resolution, and thereby provide fundamental insights on local material property variations. In this work, we investigate the local response to load and shear of poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) hydrogels with two different cross-linking densities submerged in aqueous solution. The response of the hydrogels to purely normal loads, as well as the combined action of load and shear, was found to be complex due to viscoelastic effects. Our results show that the surface stiffness of the hydrogel samples increased with increasing load, while the tip-hydrogel adhesion was strongly affected by the load only when the cross-linking density was low. The combined action of load and shear results in the formation of a temporary sub-micrometer hill in front of the laterally moving tip. As the tip pushes against such hills, a pronounced stick-slip effect is observed for the hydrogel with low cross-linking density. No plastic deformation or permanent wear scar was found under our experimental conditions.

A synthesis protocol was identified to produce covalent grafting of poly(dimethyl siloxane) from cellulose, based on prior studies of analogous ring opening polymerizations. Following this polymer modification of cellulose, the contact adhesion was anticipated to be modified and varied as a function of the polymer molecular mass. The synthetic details were optimized for a filter paper surface before grafting the polymer from bulk cellulose spheres. The adhesion of the unmodified and grafted, bulk cellulose spheres were evaluated using the Johnson-Kendall-Roberts (JKR) theory with a custom build contact adhesion testing setup. We report the first example of grafting poly(dimethyl siloxane) directly from bulk cellulose using ring opening polymerization. For short grafting lengths, both the JKR work of adhesion and the adhesion energy at the critical energy release rate (G(c)) were comparable to unmodified cellulose beads. When polymer grafting lengths were extended sufficiently where chain entanglements occur, both the JKR work of adhesion and G(c) were increased by as much as 190%. Given the multitude of options available to graft polymers from cellulose, this study shows the potential to use this type of cellulose spheres to study the interaction between different polymer surfaces in a controlled manner. [GRAPHICS] .

Transforming biomass derived components to materials with controlled and predictable properties is a major challenge. Current work describes the controlled synthesis of starcopolymers with functional and degradable arms from the Lignoboost (R) process. Macromolecular control is achieved by combining lignin fractionation and characterization with ring-opening copolymerization (ROCP). The cyclic monomers used are epsilon-caprolactone (epsilon CL) and a functional carbonate monomer, 2-allyloxymethyl-2-ethyltrimethylene carbonate (AOMEC). The synthesis is performed at ambient temperature, under bulk conditions, in an open flask, and the graft composition and allyl functionality distribution are controlled by the copolymerization kinetics. Emphasis is placed on understanding the initiation efficiency, structural changes to the lignin backbone and the final macromolecular architecture. The present approach provides a green, scalable and cost effective protocol to create well-defined functional macromolecules from technical lignins.