CAREER: Development of Novel Ternary Copolymer Assemblies

拟议的研究活动将集中在三元共聚物的制备和分析上，这些聚合物旨在自组装成两类新的结构。在一类材料中，ABC三嵌段共聚物在本体中的相分离将被用来排列不同组的金属化合物，以在聚合物基质中制备金和钴纳米颗粒的相互作用的阵列。在第二类材料中，含有热形态组分的三元嵌段和接枝共聚物的溶液相组装将导致形成形状和尺寸与温度有关的胶束结构。已建立的胶束交联技术将被用于从这些材料制备坚固的可折叠纳米材料和装置。活性自由基聚合技术将在这些三元共聚物的制备中发挥重要作用。拟议活动的智力价值在于它们扩展了目前制备新的三嵌段和三元共聚物的合成技术，它们可能扩展了目前对嵌段共聚物自组装现象的理解，并使关于这些主题的理论能够与潜在的应用相联系。对这些组件的研究不仅将补充和建立在聚合物材料以及更广泛定义的纳米材料研究领域的研究现状的基础上。就更广泛的影响而言，拟议的研究活动将极大地有助于目前对纳米级器件的理解，并导致具有精细加工成更大功能材料的潜力的纳米级材料的发展。这些活动还将涉及材料和聚合物研究方面的研究生和本科生的培训。由于将聚合物化学纳入普通化学教育越来越受欢迎，而达特茅斯学院目前的化学课程只提供一门为期一学期的聚合物化学课程，PI还将为毕业生和高水平本科生开设一门聚合物化学合成方面的选修课。这门新课程将补充现有聚合物化学课程的更多物理倾向。作为在社区开展聚合物教育的更大努力的一部分，当地一家科学博物馆正在开发一个关于现代聚合物科学的重要和有趣方面的展览。拟议的教育活动将使几个群体了解聚合物科学：直接参与研究的学生，参与新的聚合物化学课程的学生，以及参观拟议的博物馆展览的社区成员。

The proposed research activities will focus upon the preparation and analysis of ternary copolymers designed to self-assemble into two classes of novel structures. In one class of materials, phase-segregation of ABC triblock copolymers in the bulk will be used to arrange different sets of metal compounds for preparation of interworked arrays of gold and cobalt nanoparticles within a polymer matrix. In the second class of materials, solution-phase assembly of ternary block and graft copolymers containing thermomorphic components will lead to formation of micellar structures with temperature-dependent shapes and sizes. Established techniques for the cross-linking of micelles will be used to prepare robust collapsible nanometer scale materials and devices from these materials. Living free radical polymerization techniques will play a major role in preparation of these ternary copolymers. The intellectual merit of the proposed activities lies in their extension of current synthetic techniques for the preparation of new triblock and ternary copolymers, their likely expansion of current understanding of block copolymer self-assembly phenomena, and their enablement of the connection of theory concerning these topics to potential applications. Study of these assemblies will complement and build upon the current state of research in not only polymeric materials, but also in more broadly defined nanomaterials research fields.In terms of broader impact, the proposed research activities will contribute greatly to current understanding of nanoscale devices and lead to the development of nanometer scale materials with potential for elaboration into larger functional materials. These activities will also involve the training of graduate and undergraduate students in materials and polymer research. As inclusion of polymer chemistry in a general education in chemistry is becoming increasingly desirable and the current chemistry curriculum at Dartmouth College offers only a single one-term course in polymer chemistry, the PI will also develop an elective course in the synthetic aspects of polymer chemistry for graduates and upper-level undergraduates. This new course will complement the more physical bent of the existing polymer chemistry course. As part of a greater effort toward polymer education in the community, an exhibit on important and interesting aspects of modern polymer science at a local science museum is being developed. The proposed educational activities will bring an awareness of polymer science to several groups of people: the students directly involved in research, the students participating in the new polymer chemistry curriculum, and to community members who visit the proposed museum exhibit.