Title:Upcycling Polymers into Functional Coatings through SLED

In the realm of advanced materials, there is a critical demand for polymer composite coatings, driven by the escalating demand for high-performance materials that balance environmental sustainability and cost-effectiveness. One such way of addressing this demand is to create polymers through electrospray deposition (ESD). ESD is a manufacturing technique that makes use of electric fields to guide electrically charged droplets towards a grounded substrate. This potential becomes even greater in the self-limiting electrospray deposition (SLED) regime, which makes use of the accumulated charge in the deposited polymer to repel and redirect the spray droplets to uncoated areas of the substrate. This leads to a self-limiting effect, creating a polymer coating that is relatively uniform in thickness and conformally wraps complex topologies. These coatings are on the order of microns, and therefore can coat a large area of material with minimal material, and the ESD process also minimizes overspray. Here, we explore the use of SLED as a means of upcycling polymer waste into functional porous and dense coatings of polymers and polymer composites. Specifically, we are able to make solutions in sustainable solvents from plexiglass and styrofoam waste, and then spray these solutions to create these coatings, which have superhydrophobic, barrier, or composite-derived functionality.