Please consider attending the following: MATERIALS ENGINEERING SEMINAR "Mechanisms for Combining Polyamide and Epoxy and Their Effects on Mechanical Performance" By Diana G. Heflin Purdue MSE Ph.D. Preliminary Exam Advisor: Professor Jan-Anders Mansson ABSTRACT This work provides an in-depth study in the various methods for toughening epoxy resin with polyamide across a range of length scales-from the atomic to the macroscopic. This allows for a fundamental understanding of the epoxy-polyamide system, as many of the atomic interactions and their kinetics inform the macroscopic mechanical properties. The kinetics of the epoxy-polyamide reaction prove that covalent bonding is energetically favorable, enabling chemical crosslinking between epoxy and polyamide. The two polymers can then mechanically interlock under a number of different processing conditions, including forming a homogeneous mixture of the two, incorporating the polyamide into the epoxy in the form of fine particles, or adding the polyamide to an epoxy-fiber composite. Though each of these methods allows for the tailoring of processing conditions and final structures to an individual use, the literature shows that the underlying physical and chemical interactions can be applied to all epoxy-polyamide systems. Thus, lessons learned through the study of one epoxy-polyamide structure can be valuable in predicting the behavior of other epoxy-polyamide mixtures. Further, many findings presented in this work can be extended to other combinations of dissimilar polymers. Date: Thursday, November 30, 2017 Time: 12:30 P.M. Place: IMI 127