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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Josie Giles
School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
(404) 385-2299
events@gatech.edu
Summary Sentence: In addition to its annual lectures, ChBE hosts a weekly seminar throughout the year with invited lecturers who are prominent in their fields.
Full Summary: In addition to its annual lectures, ChBE hosts a weekly seminar throughout the year with invited lecturers who are prominent in their fields. Unless otherwise noted, all seminars are held on Wednesdays in the Molecular Science and Engineering Building ("M" Building) in G011 (Cherry Logan Emerson Lecture Theater) at 4:00 p.m. Refreshments are served at 3:30 p.m. in the Emerson-Lewis Reception Salon.
Dr. Thomas H. Epps, IIIIn addition to its annual lectures, ChBE hosts a weekly seminar throughout the year with invited lecturers who are prominent in their fields. Unless otherwise noted, all seminars are held on Wednesdays in the Molecular Science and Engineering Building ("M" Building) in G011 (Cherry Logan Emerson Lecture Theater) at 4:00 p.m. Refreshments are served at 3:30 p.m. in the Emerson-Lewis Reception Salon.
January 18
Dr. Thomas C. Epps
DuPont Young Professor and Assistant Professor
Chemical Engineering Department
University of Delaware
Using Interfacial Manipulations to Generate Functional Materials from Nanostructured Polymers
Abstract
As future technological progress necessitates the design and control of nanoscale
devices, new methods for the facile creation of smaller features must be discovered.
One sub-class of soft material, block copolymers, provides the opportunity to design
materials with attractive chemical and mechanical properties based on the ability to
assemble into periodic structures with nanoscale domain spacings. To employ block
copolymers in many applications, it is essential to understand how interfacial energetics
influence copolymer morphologies. Two areas of recent research in the group involve:
(1) probing the effects of interfacial composition on block copolymer self-assembly
using tapered block copolymers, and (2) generating gradient substrate and “free”
surfaces for thin films block copolymer studies. In the first area, we are manipulating
the interfacial region between blocks to control ordering transitions in tapered diblock
copolymers and triblock copolymers. This ability to adjust copolymer energetics allows
us to generate nanoscale networks for applications ranging from analytical separation
membranes to ion-conducting materials. In the second area, we are manipulating
polymer thin film interfacial interactions using discrete gradient methods to control the
free surface interactions, and gradient arrays of assembled monolayers to influence the
substrate surface interactions. In particular, our chlorosilane monolayer gradients and
solvent vapor gradients permit rapid screening of the surface/polymer interactions
necessary to induce the desired nanostructure orientations in many block copolymer
systems.
