Career Program: Co-Adsorption and its Ramifications in Mixtures of Surfactants and Water-Soluble Polymers

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9623849 Tilton This Faculty Early Career Development grant is to establish innovative and industrially relevant educational and research programs. The research plan is designed to help provide the molecular level understanding of adsorption phenomena that is necessary for rationale control of interfacial properties, which in turn control the macroscopic properties of many complex fluid formulations. The research focuses on the poorly understood but crucial effects of competitive and synergistic interactions that occur during co-adsorption of polymers and small surface active molecules. Adsorption phenomena are responsible for the success or failure of innumerable complex fluid formulations in technologies spanning the chemical, materials, pharmaceuticals, environmental, and biomaterials industries. Currently, most fundamental adsorption studies consider single component solutions, while industrially relevant fluids commonly contain a variety of surface active materials with widely varying molecular weight, solubility, and surface affinity. In these cases, competitive and synergistic effects between the various species control the composition and structure of the adsorbed layers that in turn control macroscopic properties of the fluid and its interactions with surfaces. To select some examples, co-adsorption phenomena are critical for ink-jet printing and the appearance of automobile finishes. In the personal care products business, medicinal lotions and skin and hair treatments depend heavily on co-adsorption of surfactants and polymers. Stability of food products, separation processes in pharmaceutical production, and surfactant-enhanced remediation of toxic waste sites are other major applications. This research is intended to elevate the understanding of polymer adsorption in industrially relevant multicomponent systems, and it spans the gap between fundamental studies of basic co-adsorption mechanisms and the practical consequences of co-adsorption. Accordingly, one of the proposed projects will be conducted in collaboration with industrial scientists. Specific projects included investigation of the effect of co-adsorption on colloidal forces and colloidal stability in polymer/surfactant mixtures; and a model study of the role of co-adsorption in surfactant-enhanced remediation of hydrocarbon contaminated soils in the presence of naturally occurring macromolecules. The educational program will produce novel learning tools and ways to help students improve their technical and learning skills, creativity, awareness of scientific advances in chemical engineering, and a sense of the global workplace. The goals of the educational program will be met by three initiatives. The principal investigator (P.I.) will develop creative, self-paced learning tools based on user friendly computer applications that allow even the most timid students to thoroughly explore nuances of engineering subjects. The PI will develop a new course and several new educational lab experiments that incorporate modern research in colloid and interface science into the curriculum for both undergraduate and graduate students. Finally, the PI will organize an international exchange program for advanced graduate students to spend time in leading colloid and interface science labs around the globe. Visiting students will also be hosted in the PIOs laboratory. ***