报告题目：Polymer Brush-Grafted Silica Nanoparticles

报告人：Prof. Lei Zhu （祝磊）
     Department of Macromolecular and Chemical Science and Engineering Case Western Reserve University

时间：2016年6月28日（周二）上午10点
地点：南开大学蒙民伟楼201

摘要：

In this presentation, we will introduce our recent study on self-assembled morphology of mixed homopolymer brushes grafted on silica nanoparticles. This is a collaborative effort among computer simulation, polymer synthesis, and morphology characterization. From computer simulation, a variety of intriguing self-assembled morphologies are predicted. Using sequential surface initiated and controlled free radical polymerization, mixed poly(tert-butyl acrylate) (PtBA)and polystyrene (PS) homopolymer brushes are successfully grafted from silica nanoparticles. Due to strong phase segregation between PtBA and PS, microphase separated morphologies are observed and are dependent upon grafting density, brush molecular weight and disparity, and silica particle size. In particular, three-dimensional (3D) transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is used to characterize the self-assembled morphology. With proper modification to our silica nanoparticles, we anticipate that polymer hairy nanoparticles will find great potential in practical applications.

个人简介：

Professor Zhu received his B.S. degree in Materials Chemistry in 1993 and M.S. degree in Polymer Chemistry and Physics in 1996 from Fudan University. He received his Ph.D.degree in Polymer Science from University of Akron in 2000. After two-year postdoctoral experience at the Maurice Morton Institute, University of Akron, he joint Institute of Materials Science and Department of Chemical, Materials and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Connecticut, as an assistant professor. In 2007, he was promoted to associate professor with tenure. In 2009, he moved to Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University as an Associate Professor. In 2013, he was promoted to full Professor. His research interests include high kdielectric and ferroelectric polymers for advanced electrical applications, polymer nanocomposites, and polymer multilayer films. He is recipient of NSF Career Award, 3M Nontenured Faculty Award, DuPont Young Professor Award, and Rogers Teaching Excellence Award. He is author and co-author of 140 refereed journal publications and 5 book chapters. He delivered over 150 invited talks and 45 contributed presentations, and his total citation is over 5100 times with an h-index of 42.