GOALI: Structural Design at the Polymer -Surface Interface with Nanoporous Silica-Polyamine Composites

化学系的分析和表面化学项目以及工程理事会的GOALI项目将支持蒙大拿大学的Edward Rosenberg教授的研究项目。罗森博格教授和他的学生与当地一家公司合作，开发了一种新型的无定形硅聚合物复合材料，这种材料正在商业化生产，并被用于采矿和修复工业。尽管与竞争技术相比，它们的性能有所提高，但人们对非晶无机基体和接枝有机聚合物之间的界面结构特征知之甚少。Rosenberg教授和他的学生将开发和采用新的方法来操纵无机-有机界面，通过使用溶胶-凝胶化学来控制二氧化硅的结构，并通过使用结构多样的锚定分子来控制聚合物接枝的结构。新的光谱方法分析所得的复合材料以及计算建模将用于评估这些界面操作的影响。研究结果将对无机-有机杂化材料的设计产生广泛的影响。该研究项目将为复合材料领域的学生提供良好的培训机会。罗森博格教授将让蒙大拿州巴勃罗萨利什库特奈部落学院的学生参与他的研究项目。

The Analytical and Surface Chemistry program in the Division of Chemistry and the GOALI program of the Engineering Directorate and will support the research program of Prof. Edward Rosenberg of the University of Montana. Prof. Rosenberg and his students, in collaboration with a local company, has developed a novel class of amorphous silica-polymer composite materials that are being commercially produced and are being used in the mining and remediation industries. Despite their improved performance relative to competitive technologies the structural features of the interface between the amorphous inorganic matrix and the grafted organic polymer are poorly understood. Prof. Rosenberg and his students will develop and employ novel approaches for manipulating the inorganic-organic interface by controlling the structure of the silica using sol-gel chemistry and the structure of the polymer graft by using structurally diverse anchor molecules. Novel spectroscopic methods for analyzing the resulting composites as well as computational modeling will be used to assess the impact of these interface manipulations. The results will have broad impact on the design of inorganic-organic hybrid materials. The research program will provide excellent training opportunities to students in the area of composite materials. Prof. Rosenberg will involve students from the Salish Kootenai tribal college in Pablo, Montana in his research program.