Polymer Adsorption and Transport into Nanopores(Grant No.: DMR-0449736, Program director: Dr. Andrew J. Lovinger.)

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

0 5 10 15 20

p

ore

, mg

/m2

Rp, nm

Silica

PS

in solution

Rp

Rg

•Rg: radius of gyration of polymers•Rp: pore radius of nanoporous silica

SEM of nanoporous silica

When Rg > Rp,

PS in cyclohexane

SEM of a PS shell layer remaining after HF etching

i) PS adsorption in cyclohexaneii) HF treatment & sonification

When polymers are larger than pores,

When Rg < Rp, pore ~ (Rg) ~ flat

Rg > Rp, pore ~ (Rp).

When polymers are larger than pores, the “true” pore depends not on polymer size, but on pore size.

Chang Ryu, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY

(1) Understanding the size interplay between polymers and pores

= surface excess = wt. of adsorbed polymers per unit area

(2) Applications of polymer nanopore adsorption for polymer separation

Polymer separation in polymer nanoparticle composites

Block copolymer fractionation based on chemical composition differences

Li et al. Macromolecules 2006, 39, 3175-3183.

Park et al. Macromolecules 2006, 39, 315-318.

Research

Polymer Adsorption and Transport into Nanopores(Grant No.: DMR-0449736, Program director: Dr. Andrew J. Lovinger.)

Chang Ryu, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY

Education Outreach

• Two Ph.D. Students Won Kim (4th year), Chansu Kim (4th year)

• Four undergraduate students Felicia Tsai (junior, RPI)†

Samantha G. Gladstone (freshman, RPI) Nan Chen (freshman, RPI) Jeol Batson (Junior, Morehouse, GA) ‡

†The winner of Janz award at RPI for the summer research support at RPI, based on her previous work and proposed work before the summer of 2006.

‡ REU supplement-CAREER support (DMR-636168) for the summer of 2006

(1)Two graduate students are making a steady progress toward their Ph.D. degrees.

(2) Undergraduate research by 4 students is supported beyond the original budgeted plan by attracting RPI internal scholarship funding and obtaining REU supplement-CAREER support.

(3) Graduate-level course titled “Polymer Separation and HPLC (2 credit)” was offered to 8 graduate and 2 undergraduate students at RPI in Spring, 2006.

(2) The PI hosted UG students from Williams College (UG Only institution) for one-day special lecture/laboratory on polymer HPLC at RPI (Picture above-right: April, 2006)

(3) The PI and his students continued to develop the educational web-based resource on polymer materials -“Virtual Polymer Laboratory” (http://block.chem.rpi.edu/html/E_Outreach)

(1) High School Outreach Program: The PI will continue to collaborate with HS

teachers as a Program Coordinator of “Bringing Nanotechnology to the Classroom”, HS Outreach Program in NSEC at RPI, since 2003 (Picture below-left: July, 2005). The PI also gave a seminar on nanotechnology at “Albany Academy for Girls” in Albany, NY (May, 2006) in an effort to expand the HS outreach program