Levich Institute Seminar Announcement, 10/07/2008

Tuesday, 10/07/2008 4:00 PM Mudd Building, Room #825 500 West 120th Street Columbia University Professor Frank Bates University of Minnesota Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science "Block Copolymers: Designer Materials at Commodity Prices" [This is a CCNY/Columbia NSF-IGERT Soft Materials seminar]

ABSTRACT

Block copolymers have produced some of the most intriguing and complex nanoscale morphologies reported in the field of soft materials over the past several years. This class of macromolecules includes a plethora of molecular architectures (linear, branched, grafted) formed from a wide range of monomers, which can be combined into a nearly unlimited variety of precisely tailored molecular structures. Versatile synthesis techniques, notably anionic and living free-radical polymerization, afford exquisite control over the molecular composition, block sequencing, and molecular weight and polydispersity. Post polymerization catalytic modification such as hydrogenation offers the opportunity to further enhance physical properties. This presentation will examine the basic thermodynamic factors responsible for microphase separation and ordering in model block copolymers, followed by a discussion of several new applications of block copolymers in commodity materials.

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