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Natural sciences
- Synthesis of materials
Fluoropolymers are widely known to the public as water repellant membranes in jackets or outdoor clothing as well as low friction coatings in cookware. However, the tremendous efforts required for creating those exceptional materials in shape and onto the desired substrates remains unnoticed. This provided a target for the project therefore, among other things, to facilitate the processability of fluorinated elastomers. Elastomers, as synthetic rubbers, are known to be permanently and irreversibly crosslinked. We will use a novel strategy of using reversible crosslinking points to enhance processability, implement healing properties and possibly even allow reprocessing, or reshaping of the fluorinated materials. Therefore, two main approaches will be followed. One approach will deal with dynamic, elastic fluorinated materials with gradually increasing flow that might enable applications in as adhesives or for areas in which welding is required. In a second approach we will make use of reversible chemistry that provides a certain viscosity drop for enhanced coatability, e.g. on textiles where penetration of the substrate cannot be met with currently available fluoropolymers. Above all, a thorough characterization will be performed and related to various defined fluorinated content in order to use as little fluorinated polymer as possible for targeted properties, such as water resistance, and hence limiting cost while enhancing the scope of fluoropolymers’ applicability.