Paper Number
AM13                         My Program 

Session
Additive and Advanced Manufacturing

Title
Advanced manufacturing and deconstruction of polymer networks using stimuli-responsive microcapsules

Presentation Date and Time
October 22, 2025 (Wednesday) 10:10

Track / Room
Track 5 / O’Keeffe + Milagro

Authors (Click on name to view author profile)

  1. Jones, Brad H. (Sandia National Laboratories)
  2. Davydovich, Oleg (Sandia National Laboratories)
  3. Leguizamon, Samuel C. (Sandia National Laboratories)
  4. Westover, Clarissa (Arizona State University)
  5. C'de Baca, Francesca M. (Sandia National Laboratories, Organic Materials Science)

Author and Affiliation Lines (in printed abstract book)
Brad H. Jones1, Oleg Davydovich1, Samuel C. Leguizamon1, Clarissa Westover2 and Francesca M. C'de Baca1
1Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM; 2Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

Speaker / Presenter 
Jones, Brad H.

Keywords
additve manufacturing; advanced manufacturing; directed systems; networks; particualte systems; sustainability

Text of Abstract
Microencapsulated functional compounds have been studied extensively for the development of stimuli-responsive materials, such as self-healing composites and coatings with sensing capabilities. In contrast, there are comparatively few examples of their use in advanced manufacturing and chemical recycling techniques, despite reliance on various external stimuli (e.g., light) to drive critical processes underpinning such techniques. This presentation will illustrate how microencapsulated catalysts can be leveraged to create polymer networks with programmable transformation profiles. We rendered highly active catalysts effectively latent by sequestration within glassy particles. These particles were used to create olefin resin systems for energy-efficient frontal polymerizations having exceptional shelf stability. The particle composition and design were varied to create both temperature- and light-activated systems. In other work, we created polybutadiene elastomers loaded with microencapsulated catalysts that were released in situ to induce rapid depolymerization of the elastomer. The depolymerization products were reprocessed, without any separation, purification, or workup, into a new elastomer bearing minimal loss of mechanical properties. More recently, we have extended these approaches to alternative polymer chemistries, such as polyurethanes. In all cases, we relied heavily on rheological and dynamic mechanical characterization to assess the performance of these unique, stimuli-responsive systems.