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

9623849 Tilton教师早期职业发展基金旨在建立创新的和与工业相关的教育和研究项目。该研究计划旨在帮助提供对吸附现象的分子水平理解，这对于界面性质的基本控制是必要的，从而控制许多复杂流体配方的宏观性质。该研究的重点是在聚合物和小表面活性分子共吸附过程中发生的竞争和协同相互作用的关键影响。吸附现象是化学、材料、制药、环境和生物材料行业中无数复杂流体配方成功或失败的原因。目前，大多数基础吸附研究考虑的是单组分溶液，而工业相关流体通常含有各种表面活性物质，其分子量、溶解度和表面亲和力差异很大。在这些情况下，不同物种之间的竞争和协同效应控制了吸附层的组成和结构，从而控制了流体的宏观性质及其与表面的相互作用。举几个例子，共吸附现象对喷墨印刷和汽车表面处理的外观至关重要。在个人护理产品业务中，药用乳液以及皮肤和头发护理在很大程度上依赖于表面活性剂和聚合物的共吸附。食品的稳定性、药品生产中的分离过程和表面活性剂增强的有毒废物场地修复是其他主要应用。本研究旨在提高对工业相关多组分体系中聚合物吸附的理解，它跨越了基本共吸附机制的基础研究和共吸附的实际结果之间的差距。因此，其中一个拟议项目将与工业科学家合作进行。具体项目包括研究共吸附对聚合物/表面活性剂混合物中胶体力和胶体稳定性的影响；在天然大分子存在的情况下，共吸附在表面活性剂增强碳氢化合物污染土壤修复中的作用的模型研究。该教育计划将提供新颖的学习工具和方法，帮助学生提高他们的技术和学习技能、创造力、对化学工程科学进步的认识，以及对全球工作场所的认识。教育计划的目标将通过三项举措来实现。首席研究员（P.I.）将开发基于用户友好的计算机应用程序的创造性、自进度学习工具，使即使是最胆小的学生也能彻底探索工程学科的细微差别。PI将开发一门新课程和几个新的教育实验室实验，将胶体和界面科学的现代研究纳入本科生和研究生的课程。最后，PI将组织一个国际交流项目，让高级研究生花时间在全球领先的胶体和界面科学实验室。访问学生也将在PIOs实验室接受接待。＊＊＊

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. ***