Dr. Harshit Patel's Talk

Jan 02, 2014 - 17:00

Jan 02, 2014 - 18:00

Creativity Hall (Room 118) Chemical Engineering

Seminars

Dr. Harshit Patel PhD - USA MS (Chemical Engineering) - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute USA B.E. (Chemical) - Mumbai University

Abstract: Interactions between surfactants and the resultant ordering of surfactant assemblies can be tuned by the appropriate choice of head- and tailgroups. Detailed studies of the ordering of monolayers of long-chain n-alkanoic and n-alkanol monolayers at the water-vapor interface have demonstrated that rigid-rod all-trans ordering of the tail groups is maintained upon replacing the alcohol with a carboxylic acid headgroup. In contrast at the water-hexane liquid-liquid interface we demonstrate that substitution of the -CH2OH with the -COOH head group produces a major conformational change of the tail group from disordered to ordered. This is demonstrated by the electron density profiles of triacontanol (CH3(CH2)29OH) and triacontanoic acid (CH3(CH2)28COOH) monolayers at the water-hexane interface as determined by X-ray reflectivity measurements. Molecular dynamics simulations illustrate the presence of hydrogen bonding between the triacontanoic acid head groups that is likely responsible for the tail ordering. A simple free energy illustrates the interplay between the attractive hydrogen bonding and the ordering of the tail group.About the speaker: After completing his engineering from Mumbai in 1999 Harshit spent over 5 years in US- first completing his MS in Chemical engineering and then his Doctoral Program (PhD). He came back to India in 2005 to manage his family business of Chemicals and Textiles but his passion towards technology and e-commerce drove him to start multiple portals. His research is primarily on molecular simulations of liquid and polymeric systems. He has also devised algorithms for speeding up computation of complex molecular systems.