Current Position: Technical Specialist, Evonik

B.S.E. Research:

Advances in 3D printing are currently expanding the range of properties and applications accessible by this technology. One promising direction for this field is the development of reactive 3D printing, in which a polymerization reaction solution is used as the print material, curing and hardening over time. Ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) shows promising characteristics for use in reactive 3D printing with some preliminary work having been done by Promerus LLC. Two candidate polymers, poly-hexyl tetracyclododecene and poly-phenylethyl tetracyclododecene, have been identified for their applications to this process.

My work centers on understanding the properties of these polymers, including their reactivities, glass transition temperatures, backbone cis-trans ratios, molecular weight distributions, and mechanical properties. Additionally, the monomers used for these are a mix of different stereoisomers, adding another layer of complexity to the analysis of all of the above characteristics which I am exploring using a variety of analytical techniques.