US-Turkey Cooperative Research: Online Monitoring of Copolymerization Reactions

Tulane University, New Orleans LA

Investigators

Abstract

0080624 Reed Description: This award is for support of a cooperative project by Dr. Wayne Reed, Department of Physics, Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana and Dr. Huceste Catalgil-Giz, Faculty of Science at Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey. The two investigators plan to study the application of novel instrumentation and methods for absolute, online monitoring of polymerization reactions, recently developed by Reed and his co-workers, to several reaction families. Specifically they plan to deal with a very important class of polymerization reactions, those involving copolymerization reactions. It is planned to monitor online the reactivity ratios of comonomers used in copolymer reactions, at the same time absolute weight averages mass Mw, radius of gyration, reduced viscosity and a measure of polydispersity are measured. It is expected that the methods developed from this project will eventually become important for the advancement of polymer science, for fundamental studies, optimization of processes for producing polymers, and for online quality control at the industrial reactor level. Scope: This award will allow collaboration between Turkish and US scientists who have complementary capabilities and experience. The Turkish investigators have excellent basic training in polymer science although they work under significant equipment limitations. They are actively publishing on the subject of copolymerization ratios. The US scientist is a physicist with instrument building skills and excellent research capabilities. The Tulane-Turkey interaction appears to be a logical collaboration. This proposal meets the INT objective of increasing collaboration by US and foreign scientists in areas of mutual benefit. This project is jointly funded by the Division of International Programs and the Division of Chemical and Transport Systems.