Byeunggon Kim
| bkim26@ncsu.edu
M.S., Chemical Engineering, 2023 B.S., Chemical Engineering, 2021 |
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Research focus: Shear-driven fabrication of architected polymer particles for sustainable materials
My research focuses on developing architected polymer particles through an energy-efficient shear-driven fabrication method and integrating them into sustainable material systems. This technique uses nonsolvent-induced phase separation under shear to create complex particle morphologies at low energy cost, and it is compatible with a wide range of polymers, including biodegradable biopolymers such as chitosan, alginate, and ethyl cellulose.
A major direction is to employ these architected biopolymer particles as reinforcing materials in thin films. Embedding complex particles can significantly improve tensile properties, reduce moisture transmission, and enhance hydrophobicity, providing a pathway toward biodegradable films that can replace conventional fossil-fuel-based substrates in packaging applications.
Another goal is to design hydrophobic particles suited for forming low-density aerogels through a more energy-efficient process. Architected particles produced via shear-driven methods enable the formation of aerogels with reduced energy input while maintaining desirable thermal insulation and energy-absorbing characteristics.
Together, this work establishes a versatile and scalable strategy for transforming diverse polymers into functional architected particles, enabling the creation of high-performance films and aerogels with a markedly smaller environmental and energy footprint.