05/19/2021
By Sokny Long

The Francis College of Engineering, Department of Plastics Engineering, invites you to attend a Master’s thesis defense by Shnaidie Macajoux on “A Study on Polyester-based Fiber Extrusion and Their Thermoresponsive Functionalities."

MSE Candidate: Shnaidie Macajoux
Defense Date: Thursday, May 27, 2021
Time: 4 to 5:30 p.m. EST
Location: This will be a virtual defense via Zoom. Those interested in attending should contact shnaidie_macajoux@student.uml.edu and committee advisor Jay_park@uml.edu at least 24 hours prior to the defense to request access to the meeting.

Committee Chair (Advisor): Jay Park, Assistant Professor, Plastics Engineering, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Committee Members:

  • Ramaswamy Nagarajan, Professor, CO-Director of HEROES , Plastics Engineering, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Hongwei Sun, Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Northeastern University

Brief Abstract:

Polyester materials have a broad range of applications. These include uses in apparel, homeware, and automotive. Apparel is the most common use, and our investigations of the processing and thermoresponsiveness of polyester fibers are directly applicable to this use. The goal of this thesis is to study polyester based fibers, their functionalization, and textile characterization.

Smart fibers or intelligent fibers are fibers that are “capable of reacting various external stimuli or environmental changes by rearranging their structure at a molecular level and adapting functionality accordingly,” [1]. They can do so quickly and are generally adaptable to a wide range of thermal stimuli.

In a small set of studies, we investigated some of these features of polyester and smart fibers. The first focused on the processing of bottle grade polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into usable fibers. The next looked at the thermoreponsiveness of melt spun polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), Crastin and a thermoplastic elastomer, Hytrel. This was done by changing parameters such as geometry, fiber diameter, and morphology.

Reference
[1] Jingcheng, Li et al. “Intelligent Polymers, Fibers and Applications.” Polymers 13.9 (2021): 1427.

All interested students and faculty members are invited to attend the online defense via remote access.