The Physical Chemistry of Multicomponent Polymer Solutions: Complex Nanostructures and Coupled Phase Transitions

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

Professor Sandra Greer of the University of Maryland is funded by the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Program to perform experimental measurements of the phase behaviors of polymers in solution. Many of the proposed measurements will generate data that can be used to definitively test recent theoretical proposals of liquid-liquid phase separation in polymer systems. Methods include magnetic densimetry, rheometry, tensiometry and small angle neutron scattering. The polyethylene oxide polymer systems to be investigated have important applications in a broad range of industries, and the characterization of PEO/solvent phases should be of direct interest in many of these areas.