Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Nanoparticles And The Environment: Biopolymer Grafted Cellulose And Screen-Printed Carbon Nanotube Composites, Dominique Henry Porcincula

Master's Theses

A host of environmental issues will define the state of the environment in the 21^st century, with plastic pollution and water shortages among them. While solutions to these problems require large-scale, multipronged solutions, one way we can address them is through material innovation and the use of nanoparticles.

In the first project, we address the issue of plastic pollution by creating nanocomposites of biodegradable polymers (PLA and PCL) with cellulose nanofibrils. Here, PLA and PCL are grafted from the surface of cellulose nanofibrils via ring-opening polymerization of cyclic ester monomers. Polymer-grafted cellulose (PGC) is characterized with structural analysis, solubility …

Tunable Surface Interactions In Adsorbing Polymer Solutions, Sorour Hosseini

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A simple formalism is suggested, to calculate the most likely configuration of a finite polymer, between two surfaces on which the monomers can adsorb. Grafted polymers typically enhance the stability of colloidal dispersions, via the long ranged steric repulsion due to the overlap of their polymer brushes, which can be thicker that the typical range of the DLVO interactions. However, if the polymers are adsorbing on the colloidal surfaces, there is the possibility of bridge formation between particles and therefore long-range attractions are induced (a procedure commonly used for the flocculation of colloidal suspensions). The two effects are competing and …

A Comparison Study Of Two Synthesis Methods For Polymer Of Intrinsic Microporosity 1 (Pim-1), Conor S. Perry

Materials Engineering

Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity (PIMs) are an emerging polymeric material class for molecular sieving applications. This study focuses on PIM-1, an alternating copolymer of 5,5’,6,6’-tetrahydroxy-3,3’,3,3’-tetramethyl-1,1’-spirobisindane and tetrafluoroterephthalonitrile synthesized via nucleophilic aromatic substitution. PIM-1 been widely studied as a gas separating material and filtering membrane, but in this case, it is studied as a battery separator material. PIM-1’s microporous (pore diameters less than 2 nm) structure allows smaller favorable ions to transport while preventing larger ions and compounds from transporting. Two synthesis methods, round bottom flask synthesis and ball mill synthesis, of PIM-1 are compared to see any improved characteristics. The …