Polymer Composites Advanced Manufacturing Lab

Capabilities

1. Manufacturing Capabilities in PCAM

The Polymer Composites Advanced Manufacturing (PCAM) Lab, directed by Dr. Asadi, supports the end-to-end manufacturing of advanced structural and multifunctional composites and battery-integrated structures. Available capabilities include:

  • Material Processing: Sonication, shear mixing, intercalation, surface functionalization, immersion, plasma and spray coatings.
  • Fabrication & Forming for Thermoset and Thermoplastic Composites: Hot isostatic/mechanical pressing for polymers up to 500 ℃, autoclave curing, stamp forming, vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding.
  • Additive Manufacturing: DIW (100 µm resolution) and high-temperature FFF 3D printing (300 µm resolution and up to 450 °C) for polymers, nanocomposites and continuous carbon fiber composites, DLP and LCD for nanocomposites.
  • Electrochemical Integration: Glovebox-enabled cell assembly, electrode cutting, coin cell crimping, and thin-film deposition.
  • High-Throughput functional coating and Metasurfaces Fabrication: Custom-built systems for fabrication of meta surfaces and nanoparticle spray deposition and spray dynamics characterization (droplet sizing, high-speed imaging) enable precision coating of functional layers on polymers, ceramics, and MOFs.

2. Materials Characterization and Testing

Texas A&M hosts several core facilities, including the Materials Characterization Facility, Microscopy and Imaging Center, and Soft Matter Facility, providing access to:

  • Micro/Nanoscale Imaging: SEM (standard and in situ), FIB-SEM, FE-SEM, TEM with tomography, AFM, and nanoIR spectroscopy for modulus-chemistry mapping.
  • Structural & Chemical Analysis: XRD, SAXS/WAXS, FTIR, Raman, XPS/UPS, UV-Vis-NIR, elemental analysis, profilometry, DLS/Zeta potential, and confocal optical microscopy.
  • Thermal & Mechanical Characterization: TGA, DSC, DMA, tensile, compression, 3-/4-point bending with in situ SEM stages, and climate-controlled chambers.
  • Electrochemical Testing (located in PCAM): Potentiostats (BioLogic, Gamry), CHI workstations, and multi-channel battery testers for EIS, CV, and cycling tests on structural batteries.

3. Multiscale Simulation Capabilities

Simulation resources for Dr. Asadi’s research are anchored by the Texas A&M High Performance Research Computing (HPRC) center, offering access to:

  • Atomistic Modeling: DFT and MD simulations for interfacial bonding, ion transport, and nanostructure behavior.
  • Mesoscale Modeling: Coarse-grained dynamics and phase-field models to capture morphology evolution and transport pathways.
  • Macroscale Modeling: FEM and FDM approaches to evaluate mechanical behavior, coupled field effects, and processing-structure-performance correlations in composites.
  • High-Throughput Computing: Systems such as Terra, Curie, and Lonestar5 with GPU acceleration and Cray interconnects for large-scale simulations.