Tailoring Polymer Properties Through Control of Morphology and Hierarchical Design

with Dr. Kylie Van Meter 

Postdoctoral Researcher
Sandia National Laboratories

Abstract: Epoxies are a versatile class of materials with highly tunable thermomechanical properties and are frequently used as shock mitigating materials to protect sensitive electronics. In this talk, I will discuss our recent work on developing additively manufactured phase separating epoxies, whose properties and structure can be tuned at multiple scales. We demonstrate that these phase separating epoxies are promising energy absorbing materials under high strain rate and shock conditions, and additive manufacturing enables an additional avenue to mitigate shock propagation through architectural design. Thermoset foams with tunable pore morphologies are also investigated, where mechanical properties can be controlled through pore orientation, size, and shape. These foams utilize a novel room temperature deconstruction method to allow for recovery of electronics after encapsulation. Finally, we will explore a newly developed high-throughput impact technique that can measure energy dissipation and mechanical properties during impact and enables rapid development of energy absorbing materials.

Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA-0003525.

Biography: Kylie Van Meter a postdoctoral researcher at Sandia National Laboratories in the Organic Materials Science Department. Her current work focuses on the development of polymeric materials for high strain rate environments. Kylie earned her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Florida State University in 2024, where she was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow.  Her doctoral research centered on developing ultralow wear and low friction thermoplastic polymer blends for extreme environments. Originally from Florida, Kylie holds dual B.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Florida.

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