CAREER: Multiscale Mechanics of Highly Deformable Strain-Gradient Electric Generators

About This Grant

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award will support research that advances understanding of stretchable soft materials, a novel class of materials, and their ability to generate electricity through mechanical deformations. Traditional piezoelectric materials, which generate electricity when deformed, are typically limited to a narrow range of stiff, brittle materials that fail under even small strains. In contrast, this project explores the potential of using polymers, whose flexing mechanisms induce small-scale electrical polarization, the generate electricity. By investigating these mechanisms, this fundamental research intends to deepen our scientific understanding of soft materials and open the door to transformative applications, such as self-powered wearable and implantable technologies, active soft robotics, shape-conformal sensors, and energy harvesting devices. These innovations offer the potential to be both biocompatible and environmentally sustainable, thereby advancing national healthcare and energy solutions. Additionally, this project will create K-12 STEM teaching materials and provide educational opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, with a special emphasis on supporting first-generation students in interdisciplinary fields such as computational materials science, nano/micro-mechanics, electromechanics, and soft materials. Key findings will be integrated into graduate courses, ensuring that the next generation of researchers and engineers is well-prepared to lead in these emerging areas. The CAREER project will support research that attempts to establish a multiscale framework to investigate how large strain gradients in polymer-based materials can induce electric polarization. Theoretical and computational models will be developed to link molecular-level polymer chain behavior to macroscopic electromechanical responses, accounting for both bulk and surface polarization effects. Advanced continuum models incorporating higher-order strain gradient theories will be used to capture the complex interplay between bulk and interface-driven mechanisms, which are particularly critical at small scales. These models will be validated through custom experiments conducted at submillimeter dimensions, where polymer specimens and 3D-printed architectures will be subjected to controlled loading conditions to generate measurable strain gradients and record the resulting electrical outputs. This integrated approach—combining theory, simulation, and experiments—will provide critical insights into the design and characterization of soft flexoelectric materials, paving the way for their use in sensing, actuation, and sustainable energy harvesting. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.