Title:SUPRAMOLECULAR POLYMERS THROUGH IONIC INTERACTIONS
Speaker：Kevin Cavicchi  Assistant Professor（Department of Polymer Engineering，The University of Akron）
Time: 9:00 am,Dec. 29,2011
Place: Room 205, Bldg 14, SCUT North Campus
Sponsor: School of Materials Science and Engineering       
Abstract：
A key to controlling the self-assembly of polymers to form nano-structured materials is the architecture of the polymer. Examples include block and graft copolymers. This talk will focus on efforts to prepare self-assembling polymers using ionic interactions. In particular two systems will be discussed: polyelectrolyte-surfactant complexes that act as organogelators and telechelic ionomer complexes to form block copolymers. It will be demonstrated that by using facile ion-exchange reactions combinatorial libraries of materials can be produced from a different ionically functionalized polymers, surfactants, and other small molecules. In addition to the specific function the ionic groups plays in these materials, the use of ionic interactions also opens up new opportunities for synthesis where comparable covalently bonded materials may require significantly greater synthetic efforts.
Introduction to Dr. Kevin Cavicchi：
Kevin Cavicchi was born in Reading, MA. He received a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering in 1998 from Cornell University. He received his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 2003 where he studied the self-diffusion of asymmetric block copolymers. This was followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering where he studied the ordering and thermodynamics of block copolymer thin films. He joined the Department of Polymer Engineering at The University of Akron in 2006. His research group is interested in nanostructured soft materials. This includes the synthesis and characterization of well-defined block copolymers, polyelectrolyte surfactant complexes, and low molecular mass organogelators