Samyak Chordia, a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering, has won a Graduate Student Travel Award from the American Chemical Society's Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE).
Why it matters: The award provides partial travel support for graduate students to present research at ACS national meetings, recognizing standout work in polymer science from students across the country.
The details:
- Chordia is advised by Associate Professor Chris Evans in the Illinois materials department.
- He will present "Autonomous Electrolyte Recovery After Dendritic Shorting via Dynamic Polymer Networks" at the fall 2026 ACS meeting in Chicago.
- The talk is part of the "Polymeric Materials for Electrochemical Energy Storage" symposium, set for 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 26 at McCormick Place Convention Center.
The research: Chordia's work centers on dynamic polymer networks — known as vitrimers — as solid electrolytes for next-generation lithium-ion batteries. The goal: materials that combine high ionic conductivity, mechanical robustness and the ability to self-heal.
- He systematically tunes crosslinking density and salt concentration to understand how they affect bulk relaxation, rubbery modulus, glass transition temperature, and ionic conductivity in vitrimer electrolytes.
Between the lines: Chordia has published in leading polymer science and energy journals, and he's a co-inventor on two U.S. patent applications tied to self-healing vitrimer electrolytes.
Illinois Grainger Engineering Affiliations
Chris Evans is an Illinois Grainger Engineering associate professor in the Department Materials Science and Engineering and is affiliated with both the Materials Research Laboratory and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at Illinois.