US-Turkey Cooperative Research: Functionalized Acrylates with Tailored Properties and Applications

University Of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg MS

Investigators

Abstract

0218222 Mathias Description: This award is for support of a cooperative project by Dr. Lon Mathias, Department of Polymer Science, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi and Dr. Duygu Avci, Chemistry Department, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey. They plan to carry out an exchange of professors between the two universities for the purpose of teaching classes, running short courses, an exchange of scientists, graduate and undergraduate students for research purposes. They also plan to establish the first international symposium on multifunctional acrylates involving a workshop and proceedings containing comprehensive overviews of the polymer chemistry, properties and applications of alpha-hydroxymethylacrylates and derivatives (RHMA's). A novel aspect of the research in the area of multifunctional acrylates, a group of compounds distinguished by their unique cyclization and copolymerization properties, is the extensive use of computational techniques for modeling the chemical reaction kinetics of the molecules. Scope: In this project the collaborators plan to combine their expertise in an important scientific research effort, and to provide international experiences to U.S. graduate and undergraduate students. Previous collaborations between the two teams focused on experimental design and production. The combination of the proposed analytical and computational research and experimental approaches will contribute significantly to the advancement of new knowledge. New multimedia education material will be an outcome of this collaboration, focused on both synthetic and computational aspects of new monomer and polymer systems. These will build on courses taught or to be taught at University of Southern Mississippi and Bogazici by the collaborators. The international collaborations involving students is an important feature. This project is supported by the Office of International Science and Engineering and the Division of Materials Research.