Functional and Sustainable Epoxy Vitrimers

This book summarizes recent advances in epoxy vitrimer research, giving thorough discussion of the classification and fabrication of epoxy vitrimers and their composites. Epoxy vitrimers are reversible covalently crosslinked networks with dynamic covalent bonds, combining the excellent mechanical properties of thermosets with the re-processability of thermoplastics. The authors explore and summarize many current and potential applications of epoxy vitrimer composites across the domains of aerospace materials, electronic devices, machine manufacturing, and consumer products and technology. This book serves as an accessible introduction and a helpful guide to graduate students, researchers, and industry professionals in materials science and engineering with an interest in advanced polymer composites.

Assistant Prof. Yang Yang received her PhD from Tsinghua University, China, in 2017. After postdoctoral work at the Department of Chemistry, she joined the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, as an assistant professor in 2020. Her current research interests focus on lithium-ion batteries and functional polymer materials containing dynamic covalent bonds for smart materials, including vitrimers, liquid-crystalline elastomers, functional energy materials.

Prof. Yen Wei is a chair professor of chemistry and director of the Tsinghua Center for Frontier Polymer Research at Tsinghua University in China. He received his undergraduate diploma (1979) and MS (1981) at Peking University, and his PhD at the City University of New York (1986). After postdoctoral work at MIT, he joined Drexel University in 1987, where he became a full professor in 1995. He has co-authored 1215 articles with over 52800 citations and has an h-index of 113. He joined Tsinghua University in 2009. His current research focuses on polymers and nanomaterials for biomedicine and energy technology.

Associate Prof. Yan Ji received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Tianjin University, and her PhD from Peking University, China (2006). As a postdoctoral researcher she worked in the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge from 2006 to 2011. She joined the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, as an associate professor in late 2011. Her current research interests include polymer materials with dynamic covalent bonds, liquid crystalline elastomers and soft robots.