My name is Marika Agnello, I'm a Chemical Engineering major at Rowan University. 
 Today I'll be discussing my work in synthesizing polyimide aerogels for aerospace 
antennae applications. 
 Aerogels are highly porous, lightweight solid materials. 
 The most common type of aerogel are silica aerogels. 
 They're extremely fragile and easily shattered. 
 Polyimide aerogels are more durable, flexible, and heat resistant for intended applications.  
 Commercial or military aircraft can have as many as 15-100 antenna systems. 
 These can add electrical complexity and weight to the aircraft. 
 Polyimide aerogels are the ideal substrate for aerospace antennae applications. 
 They can decrease antennae bulk, weight, and complexity, while simultaneously increasing 
frequency bandwidth. 
 My role in this project was to optimize polyimide aerogels for antenna applications. 
 I did this by maximizing mechanical strength, flexibility, and moisture resistance. 
 Through this project I learned polyimides are synthesized by reacting a mixture of 
diamines with a dianhydride to create a polyamic acid intermediate. 
 The polyamic acid is then crosslinked with a triamine. 
 More crosslinker means more branching and lower chain lengths. 
 The polyamic acid is then chemically imidized. 
 An anhydride removes the water produced from the polymerization reaction. 
 While a catalyst completes the reaction. 
 The completed polyimide gel has the consistency of honey and is poured into molds. 
 It solidifies within 15 minutes and is removed after 24 hours. 
 Though a series of solvent exchanges the reaction solvent is replaced with acetone. 
 Drying through supercritical fluid extraction removes the wet portion of the gel and 
replaces it with a gas without collapsing the solid network structure. 
 The final result is a polyimide aerogel. 
 
