CAREER: A Systematic Study of Miscible and Immiscible Polymer Blends Containing a Liquid Crystalline Polymer

- - ~ 小行星9702313 在这个CAREER奖中，将探索改变包含液晶聚合物和无定形聚合物的聚合物共混物中存在的氢键的量对其相行为和工程性质的影响。 无定形聚合物将是一种共聚物，其中一种单体（乙烯基苯酚）可以参与氢键，而另一种单体（苯乙烯）不能。 两种聚合物之间存在的氢键的量将通过改变无定形共聚物的组成而系统地变化。 将确定这种变化对共混物的相膨胀的影响，并因此确定共混物的工程性能（即储能模量和损耗模量、拉伸强度、粘度）。预期存在的氢键合量的变化将产生表现出宽范围的可混溶性（主要是不可混溶性）的系统，以及其中可混溶/不可混溶窗口可接近的系统。 这最后一个系统将被用来检查的液晶聚合物的聚合物链各向异性的相分解动力学的影响。结果将提供一个基本的了解，含有液晶聚合物的共混物的物理化学，可用于开发具有可调性能的新型材料。 本科生和研究生的职业生涯的准备需要从教师/顾问不同的重点。 教师主要通过课堂与本科生互动，而研究生的成熟涉及在课堂和实验室学习。 因此，提出了遵循的教学理念的描述。 教学理念是利用有效的师生互动，确保学生学习和理解所需的课程;通过更多的日常实例使化学变得容易理解;通过在讲座和工作坊中详细描述复杂的关系，激发学生进行分析性思考;并通过工业参观者和当地化工厂的参观，向学生介绍化学概念在工业中的应用方法，为学生的职业做好准备，通过群体攻击和解决问题，并通过向他们介绍共同的工程原理。 拟议的研究计划将研究如何操纵高性能液晶聚合物的微观结构，可用于创造具有目标性能的新材料。 希望这些结果将提供可用于指导产品开发的基本信息，使得液晶聚合物的所需特性可被有效地商业化利用。 ***

- - ~ 9702313 Dadmun In this CAREER award the effect of varying the amount of hydrogen bonding present in a polymer blend containing a liquid crystalline polymer and an amorphous polymer on its phase behavior and engineering properties will be explored. The amorphous polymer will be a copolymer where one monomer (vinyl phenol) can participate in hydrogen bonding while the other monomer can not (styrene). The amount of hydrogen bonding present between the two polymers will be systematically varied by altering the composition of the amorphous copolymer. The effect of this variation on the phase `ehavior and, consequently the engineering properties (i.e. storage and loss modulus, tensile strength, viscosity) of the blend will be determined. It is expected that the change in the amount of hydrogen bonding present will produce systems which exhibit wide range miscibility, primarily immiscibility, and systems where the miscible/immiscible window is accessible. This last system will be utilized to examine the influence of the polymer chain anisotropy of the liquid crystalline polymer on the phase decomposition kinetics. The results will provide a fundamental understanding of the physical chemistry of blends containing a liquid crystalline polymer which can be utilized in the development of novel materials with tunable properties. The preparation of undergraduate and graduate students for careers demands different emphases from an instructor/advisor. Faculty primarily interact with undergraduate students via the classroom while the maturation of graduate students involve learning in both the classroom and the laboratory. Therefore, a description of a teaching philosophy which is followed is presented. A summary of the proposed teaching philosophy is to utilize effective teacher-student interaction to insure that students learn and understand the desired curriculum; to make chemistry accessible through more everyday examples; to inspire students to think a nalytically by detailing complex relationships in lecture and in workshops; and to prepare students for a vocation by introducing them to the methods by which chemical concepts are utilized in industry via industrial visitors and trips to local chemical plants, by attacking and solving problems as groups, and by introducing them to common engineering principles. %%% The proposed research program will examine how manipulation of the microscopic structure of high performance, liquid crystalline polymers can be utilized to create new materials with target properties. It is hoped that the results will provide fundamental information which can be used to guide product development such that the desirable characteristics of liquid crystalline polymers can be efficiently exploited commercially. ***