University laboratory research · 2023 – present
Frontally fabricated polymers
University of Utah, polymer and materials chemistry
Three years of hands-on research in polymer and materials chemistry at the University of Utah, studying polymers made by frontal polymerization: a curing process that runs on the heat of its own reaction. Co-author of a paper published through the American Chemical Society, with a second manuscript in the publication process.
- Co-author, ACS-published paper
- Second manuscript in publication
- 3 years of university research
Watch a front travel
A simplified reaction–diffusion model of a curing front. Heat one spot and the reaction carries itself across the sheet.
Click anywhere to heat a spot
- Cured
- Peak temperature
- 0.00 T_ad
- Front speed
- —
- Front
- stalled
Lower the heat released or raise the heat loss and the front slows, then dies out: the reaction no longer makes enough heat to trigger the monomer next to it. Real frontal systems are tuned to stay just on the right side of that line.
What frontal polymerization is
Most plastics and composites are cured by heating the whole part in an oven for hours. Frontal polymerization does it differently: you heat one small spot, the monomer there starts to polymerize, and because that reaction is strongly exothermic, the heat it releases triggers the monomer next to it. A narrow reaction zone, the front, then travels through the material on its own, turning liquid monomer into solid polymer as it goes.
Because the reaction supplies its own energy, frontal curing can be dramatically faster and use far less energy than oven curing. One widely studied system is frontal ring-opening metathesis polymerization (FROMP), in which a ruthenium catalyst opens the strained rings of monomers such as dicyclopentadiene and stitches them into long chains.
The work
Over three years in a university polymer and materials chemistry group, Bhavya has worked on experimental design, running reactions, collecting and analysing data, and communicating results with a collaborative research team.
That work led to co-authorship of a research paper published through the American Chemical Society, and an additional manuscript is currently going through publication.
Why it matters
Self-propagating cures could let manufacturers make large, strong composite parts for aircraft, cars and wind turbines without giant ovens, cutting the energy and time that manufacturing takes. Understanding exactly what controls the speed and temperature of the front is what makes that possible.