14:00-15:00 Highlight seminar (G20 RSM)
15:00-15:30 Refreshments, discussion and networking (G01 RSM)
Abstract
Polymer nanotechnology research in my group at UH spans a number of topics that range from fundamental research in biopolymers, polymer blends, polymer brushes, polymer nanocomposites and block copolymers. Demonstrated applications of these for functional materials from anisotropic polymer nanocomposites to membranes for oil/water separations are examples of projects recently launched in our International Consortium for Polymers and Soft Matter (IPSMC) that I will briefly introduce. One of the areas of nanotechnology research involves nanopatterning polymer thin films for functional ice-phobic surfaces. We also observed enhanced thermal stability of nanoimprint lithography (NIL) nanopatterned structures with polymer grafted nanoparticle brushes (PGNP), with a cross-over behavior of entropy-enthalpy compensation (EEC) around the glass transition temperature, Tg. The phase behavior of mixtures of PGNP and homopolymer exhibits interesting characteristics and entropy driven nanopatterning behavior compared to traditional polymer blends phase behavior of the brush components. With a view to forming nanoporous membranes, we perform Directed Self-Assembly (DSA) to orient block copolymer microdomains vertically, essential to future nanotechnology applications for novel. BCP membrane applications. We report the DSA design and development of highly ordered vertical cylindrical and lamellaermicrodomains of polystyrene-b-polymethyl methacrylate films by a dynamic thermal gradient process developed in our laboratory known as Cold Zone Annealing (CZA). We demonstrate the dynamics of nanostructure formation and morphology evolution in BCP films through insituGISAXS that reveals fundamental insights into the material physics and chemistry of vertical ordering in l-BCPs and apply it to form oil/water separation membranes by etching the nanopores to form hydrophilic nanochannels. The same CZA method with soft-shear is shown to align BCP lamellae parallel and novel high energy density solid-sate capacitor for pulsed power application is demonstrated.
Biography
Alamgir Karim obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from Northwestern University in Illinois in 1992. He did a post-doc in Chemical Engineering at University of Minnesota in1993, before joining NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He was Group Leader of Polymer Blends, Combinatorial Methods and Nanomaterials Group at NIST. IN 2009, he became Goodyear Chair Professor of Polymer Engineering, and Co-Director, Akron Functional Materials Center at University of Akron, and was Associate Dean of Research and Institute Director. His areas of interest and research include polymer thin films, surfaces and interfaces. Polymer systems of interest include nanoparticle polymer systems, patterning polymer films, polymer blends phase separation, polymer thin film nanocomposites, elastomers based systems, block copolymers thin film ordering, as well as polymer thin films and processing methods for functional applications.He has published over 220 papers with an h-index of 60 and edited several books in these areas of polymer research, and organized several international conferences on these topics. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) as well as Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and recipient of Keck Foundation Award. He is presently Dow Chair Professor, and Director of Materials Science and Engineering Program and Director of Polymer and Soft Matter Center at University of Houston.
About IMSE
The Institute for Molecular Science and Engineering (IMSE) is one of Imperial College London’s Global Institutes, drawing on the strength of its four faculties to address some of the grand challenges facing the world today. The Institute’s activities are focused on tackling problems where molecular innovation plays an important role.
The Highlight Seminar Series brings eminent speakers from across the globe to Imperial to increase awareness of areas where molecular science and engineering can make a valuable contribution and to promote exchanges with academic and industrial centres of excellence.