Start
Jan 12, 2012 - 17:00
End
Jan 12, 2012 - 18:00
Venue
Creativity Hall Room 118 Chemical Eng Department.
Event Type
Speaker
Dr. Aruna Mohan
Title
Field-Theoretic Modeling of Supramolecular Polymer Networks and Gels
Abstract: Multifunctional supramolecular polymer networks and gels are employed in several areas including biotechnology nanotechnology and microelectronics. For example self-healing polymers composed of di- and tri-functional groups (Cordier et al. 2008) find applications in construction cosmetics electronics and medicine. Furthermore block copolymer lithography has applications in semiconductor design (Tang et al. 2008). This talk will present a field-theoretic model of polymer networks and gels composed of reactive multifunctional monomeric units. Two examples are presented to illustrate the application of self-consistent field theory in determining equilibrium structures arising from reactions among multifunctional monomers. In the first case network formation and gelation in a confined system of single-component multifunctional monomers is considered. In the second case microstructures arising from copolymerization reactions in a binary system of multifunctional monomers are investigated. Morphologies arising from copolymerization may range from homogeneous disordered morphologies to ordered microstructures such as lamellae wherein the distinct constituents assemble into alternating layers. The goal of this work is to enable the rational design of polymer materials with desirable properties based the a priori prediction of microstructures resulting from selected monomeric constituents.About the Speaker: Aruna Mohan obtained her B. Tech. in chemical engineering from IIT Delhi in 2002 and her PhD from MIT in 2007. She conducted postdoctoral research during 2007–2008 at RiceUniversity and during 2008–2010 at UC Santa Barbara and presently she works in process engineering. Her research interests are in the areas of theoretical and computational polymer physics and biophysics.