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IBM
Senior Vice President & Director of Research Dr.
Paul Horn Delivers Shipley Lecture
Dr. Paul M. Horn, senior vice president and director of research
for IBM (a CAMP Corporate Sponsor) presented the 10th Shipley Distinguished
Lectureship at Clarkson University during the month of October.
He presented "Global Technology Outlook," IBM's projection of the
future for information technology, which included forecasts of software,
hardware and new uses and capabilities for the information technology
industry. According to Horn, these new technologies have the potential
to radically transform the performance and characteristics of tomorrow's
information processing systems and provide new business value for
customers. His lecture was sponsored by Clarkson's Center for Advanced
Materials Processing.
From
left: CAMP Director S. V. Babu, Professor Egon Matijevic' (the Victor
K. LaMer Chair in Colloid and Surface Science), Dr. Paul Horn (Senior
Vice President and Director of Research, IBM), and Clarkson University
President Anthony Collins.
NanoDynamics
and Clarkson Collaborate on Multiple Levels
NanoDynamics
is a "start-up" company in the sense that it was legally formed
two years ago. However, the company is unlike nearly all others
in that category for the simple reason that the founders and executives
have been doing this sort of thing for over a quarter century. Keith
Blakely, the CEO and cofounder of NanoDynamics, is well-known to
the Clarkson faculty and administration. He has led several advanced
materials companies over the past 25 years and they have all been
involved with Clarkson University at one time or another.
NanoDynamics, however, has taken the relationship
to a new level. Beginning in late 2002, the company began working
with Professor Dan Goia to develop a novel processing method to
synthesize highly controlled metal powders in the micron, submicron,
and nanosize range. Following an early success in copper, the relationship
expanded to include other metals, such as nickel and silver, with
many more currently under development. NanoDynamics and Clarkson
have established a broad technology licensing arrangement covering
the work and are anticipating significant benefits to both organizations
in the coming years.
In late 2003, Keith approached Senior University Professor
Richard Partch about the prospect of his consulting for the company
on a broad range of topics, but with an initial interest in carbon
nanotubes. From those discussions, a collaboration between Clarkson
and NanoDynamics was established which involved the efforts of Dr.
Sudha Rani, a post-doc in Partch's laboratory. Dr. Rani agreed to
carry out investigative work for NanoDynamics using a novel CNT
reactor and then shuttled back and forth to Potsdam to carry out
characterization studies using the unique high resolution SEM capability
of CAMP. Following a successful research effort, NanoDynamics offered
a full-time position to Dr. Rani on their research staff.
continued
on page 7
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Smart
Colloids and More
Professor
Sergiy Minko, the Egon Matijevic' Chaired Professor of Chemistry,
is an expert in colloid and polymer science and has done extensive
work involving "Smart Responsive Functional Materials Based on Self
Assembly in Polymer and Colloidal Systems." His CAMP-related research
interests include smart/responsive polymer materials, smart colloids,
nanostructured thin polymer films, nanotemplates and nanomembranes,
formation of nanowires and nanoparticles, adhesion, wetting, adsorption
phenomena , single molecule devices, and combinatorial methods in
material science.
Novel
Polymerization Techniques and New Polymer Nanocomposite Materials
Research
in Professor Devon Shipp's laboratories centers on novel polymerization
techniques and new polymer materials, in particular nanocomposites.
Over the past year a number of new developments have taken place
in these areas.
The
synthesis of polymer-layered silicate nanocomposites, where the
polymers have well-defined molecular weights and molecular weight
distributions (i.e. predictable average molecular weights and low
polydispersities) has been achieved using three variations of living
radical polymerization, viz. atom transfer radical polymerization
(ATRP), nitroxide-mediated polymerization (NMP) and reversible addition-fragmentation
chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. Nanocomposites containing
homopolymers of styrene, n-butyl acrylate (BA), methyl methacrylate
(MMA) and vinyl acetate (VAc) have been produced using montmorillonite
as the layered silicate material. This is the first work in which
RAFT has been used to produce polymer-layered silicate nanocomposites.
Block
copolymer nanocomposites of polystyrene-block-poly(MMA) and polystyrene-block-poly(BA)
have been produced using ATRP. These block copolymer materials represent
the first successful production of block copolymer-silicate nanocomposites
using living radical polymerization. These are expected to exhibit
interesting phase separation behavior, in addition to the well-documented
improvement in physical properties such as modulus, gas barrier
properties, impact strength, and lighter weights. The work on homopolymer
and block copolymer nanocomposites made by ATRP has been recently
published (Chem. Mater. 2003, 15, 2693-2695; Polymer
2004, 45, 4473-4481; J. Polym. Sci. Part A: Polym. Chem.
2004, 42, 916-924).
Another
nanocomposite project in Professor Shipp's laboratory that utilizes
the group's expertise in polymer synthesis is the synthesis of polymer
modified TiO2 particles for potential use in photovoltaic
cells. A novel method of TiO2 nanoparticles surface modification
has been developed. The modified surface contains either a radical
polymerization initiating or propagating group, and therefore the
polymer chains can be grafted onto the nanoparticles. It is believed
that by using monomers that are able to coordinate with metal ions,
the polymer coating can form a light absorbing dye and thus act
as an antenna for a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The use of
the polymer-grafted nanoparticles should alleviate the problem of
reduced stability at moderate-to-high temperatures currently experienced
by other DSSCs.
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