Nanofoams
Team Members: Kush Dwivedi, Keith Neale, Nathan DeRuyter, Shaunak Deshpande
Past Members: Zainab Patel, Madeline Waite, Chester Wong, Kellan Yoshikawa, Ryleigh Weston, Basam Khan, Luke Haunreiter, Santhosh Sridhar
Funding Agency: NSF Award #2032539
Primary Goal: To understand why nanofoams are tougher than microfoams. We use experiments at the macro- and microscale paired with numerical modeling to understand the physics of why nanofoams are more resistant to cracking.
Broader Impacts: Lighter, tougher plastics means less plastic waste. Understanding why they are tough means we can apply that learning to other materials (like biodegradable polymers). There are many technological applications of these materials from medical meshes to filters to coffee cups.
