High-performance Thermoplastic Elastomer “Primalloy”

High-throughput Fabrication of Advanced 3d Microfluidic Devices in Thermoplastic Elastomer for Biological Probe Immobilization

We have developed a process based on hot-embossing lithography (HEL) to pattern at high-throughput micron-size through-holes in thin thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) membranes. This novel HEL process, which is shown to provide key advantages for microfluidics applications, was applied to the fabrication of highly-integrated 3D microfluidic devices designed to precisely immobilize biomolecules on t...

Enhanced Coarse-Graining of Thermoplastic Polyurethane Elastomer for Multiscale Modeling

The objective of this work is to develop a multiscale modeling tool of copolymers with long chains. We propose an enhanced coarse-graining method of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) with three beads. The proposed coarse-graining provides an accurate molecular modeling tool to keep the molecular interaction together with computational efficiency. The coarse-grained model with three beads is furt...

Novel Arrangements for High Performance and Durable Dielectric Elastomer Actuation

This paper advances the design of Rod Pre-strained Dielectric Elastomer Actuators (RP-DEAs) in their capability to generate comparatively large static actuation forces with increased lifetime via optimized electrode arrangements. RP-DEAs utilize thin stiff rods to constrain the expansion of the elastomer and maintain the in-plane pre-strain in the rod longitudinal direction. The aim is to study...

Thermodynamics of water sorption in high performance glassy thermoplastic polymers

Sorption thermodynamics of water in two glassy polymers, polyetherimide (PEI) and polyetheretherketone (PEEK), is investigated by coupling gravimetry and on line FTIR spectroscopy in order to gather information on the total amount of sorbed water as well as on the different species of water molecules absorbed within the polymers, addressing the issue of cross- and self-interactions occurring in...

Thermal and Morphological Properties of Thermoplastic Elastomer Nanocomposites Based on PA6/NBR