Advancements In Polymer Synthesis And Ceramic Additive Manufacturing For Energy Applications

The aim of this work was to create polymer and ceramic materials for integration into energy applications. The first part of this research was to fabricate polymer syntactic foams that exhibited high energy absorption capabilities. The fabrication of polymer syntactic foams was feasible through synthesizing hollow polysiloxane microspheres that were imbedded into a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix. An array of characterization techniques was used to test the material and physical properties of the syntactic foams. The next step of this research was to fabricate a porous water emulsion foam ink for use in Direct-Ink-Write (DIW) additive manufacturing (AM) technologies. Unlike the polymer syntactic foams, the water emulsion foams did not have hollow particle reinforcements. Instead, pores were formed using a water-in-oil emulsion system, where the water phase was DI water, and the oil phase was PDMS. The water emulsion foams were characterized using the same mechanical and chemical characterization techniques as the syntactic foams. The last chapter of this work covers the investigation of 3D printed ceramic materials for neutron generator components. A blend of chemical, physical, and mechanical characterization techniques used for the qualification of a 3D-printable alumina slurry for use in vat-photopolymerization AM techniques. The same chemical characterization techniques that were employed for the polymer synthesis and polymer AM projects were also applied to the ceramics AM work, which demonstrated the similarities between these processes. The fabrication and analysis of polymer syntactic foams, 3D-printed water emulsion foams, and 3D-printed alumina lattices was impactful to entities within the Department of Energy (DOE) for integration into their non-nuclear components. This work contributes to a deeper understanding of polymer and ceramic material properties and AM processing techniques, thereby advancing the application of AM technologies in critical DOE projects.