Areas of Research: Materials Science & Engineering
Faculty in this area include principal investigators in the Center for Polymer and Fiber Research, an industry/academic program with governmental and industrial partners and researchers working on nanotube synthesis and application. Our partners include 3M, DuPont, and the U.S. Department of Defense.
- Fabrication and examination of high performance microfibers made by the melt blowing process
- Use of gel spinning to produce fibers that are 10 times as strong as steel: optimization of simultaneous heat, mass, and momentum transfer in this complex morphological problem
- Use of LDV (Laser Doppler Velocimetry) in the analysis of fiber-handling processes and the use of LDV in the on-line control of fiber-handling processes
- Study of polymers filled with carbon nanotubes
- Highly selective synthesis of single wall carbon nanotubes
- Nanotube application such as fuel cell electrodes, catalyst supports, field emission devices and others
- Determination of the structure and properties of polymers through the use of synchrotron radiation. Techniques include scattering, and x-ray absorption spectroscopy
- Nanoscale chemical modification of surfaces to improve polymer-filler adhesion or electrical conductivity in polymer-matrix composites
- Nanoscale templating of ordered morphologies on flat surfaces using surfactants as templating media for polymerization
- Properties of miscible blends involving polymers with ionic groups
- custom melt blowing die heads with Brabender extruder and other
- peripheral equipment
- die test stands
- custom gel spinning equipment
- laser Doppler velocimeter
- differential scanning calorimeter
- tensile tester for polymer films and fibers
- stress controlled rotational steady and oscillating rheometers
- tensile oscillating rheometer
- capillary rheometer
- gel permeation chromatograph
- low-angle laser light scattering
- scanning and transmission electron microscopes
- optical microscopes
- wide and small-angle x-ray diffractometers
- custom emulsion polymerization equipment
- Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer
- AFM (Atomic Force Microscope)
- Killion Extruder with Film and Pelletizer Dies
- X-ray photoelectron spectrometer
- Batch mixer for polymer melts
- Ellipsometer
- dynamic light scattering
