U.S.-Switzerland Cooperative Research and Education: Rheology, Morphology and Modeling of New Inorganic-Organic Hybrid Materials

这项为期三年的美国-瑞士合作研究和教育奖为美国研究生提供了获得国际和跨学科研究经验的机会。南密西西比大学聚合物与高性能材料学院的Joshua Otaigbe教授和他的研究生以及苏黎世瑞士联邦理工学院的Hans Christian Ottinger教授和他的团队参与了无机玻璃-聚合物杂化材料的研究。本文提出的无机玻璃-聚合物杂化材料属于一类较新的先进材料。它们增强的固态性能包括增强的韧性、高刚性和高强度、阻燃。智力价值这项国际合作的目标是了解支配无机-磷酸盐玻璃-有机聚合物杂化的热力学行为和微结构形成的基本物理。研究人员提议学习如何控制将未经加工的磷酸盐玻璃和有机聚合物加工成负担得起的结构部件，并确定这类混杂复合材料的技术潜力。该建议书中的建模方法可以产生这类材料的加工/结构/性能图，并可能减少或消除工业中常见的代价高昂的“试错”做法。这是朝着建立合理的设计原则迈出的第一步，以指导新混合系统的新工程的合成和处理。更广泛的影响拟议中的项目将为研究生提供研究培训，并通过与欧洲顶尖研究人员的新联系来推进他们的职业生涯。学生将体验基本的跨学科知识如何与解决实际问题相联系。该项目还利用了苏黎世理工学院互补的专业知识和优秀的研究资源。这家瑞士集团是聚合物流体的流变学、热力学和计算模拟方面的专家。他们开创了许多理论模型、数字工具和新型流变仪。这项研究在确定无机玻璃-聚合物杂化材料的新应用方面具有额外的潜力。它们可用作固态电池的固体电解液，或用作燃料电池的聚合物电解质膜，或用作核废料的储存材料。

This three-year award for U.S.-Switzerland cooperative research and education provides U.S. graduate students with the opportunity to gain international and interdisciplinary research experiences. The investigation of inorganic glass-polymer hybrid materials involves Professor Joshua Otaigbe and his graduate students at the School of Polymers and High Performance Materials, University of Southern Mississippi and Professor Hans Christian Ottinger and his group at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. Inorganic glass-polymer hybrid materials of this proposal belong to a relatively new class of advanced materials. Among their enhanced solid-state properties are increased toughness, high stiffness and strength, flame resistance. Intellectual MeritThe goal of this international collaborative effort is to understand the basic physics governing the thermodynamic behavior and microstructure formation of inorganic-phosphate glass-organic polymer hybrids. The investigators propose to learn how to control the processing of the raw phosphate glass and organic polymer into affordable, structural parts, and to identify the technological potential of this class of hybrid composites. The modeling approach in this proposal could lead to processing/structure/property maps for this family of materials and may reduce or eliminate costly "trial and error" practice that is common in industry. This is a first step toward establishing rational design principles to guide the synthesis and processing of new engineering of the new hybrid systems. Broader ImpactsThe proposed project will provide research training to graduate students and advance their careers through new connections to leading European researchers. Students will experience how fundamental interdisciplinary knowledge is linked to solving a practical problem. The project also takes advance of complementary expertise and excellent research resources at ETH Zurich. The Swiss group is expert in the rheology, thermodynamics, and computational simulations of polymeric fluids. They have pioneered a number of theoretical models, numerical tools and novel rheometers. The research has additional potential for identifying new applications for inorganic glass-polymer hybrid materials. They could be used as solid electrolytes in solid-state batteries or polymer electrolyte membranes for fuel cells or as storage materials for nuclear wastes.