All Polymer Science and Engineering majors are
required to complete a research project for a minimum of
3 credit hours. Such projects are usually more
extensive, however, and up to 9 credit hours can be
counted toward the B.S. degree. Many students, often as
early as the sophomore year, participate in research
with their faculty advisors' graduate study groups.
These undergraduates work closely with a graduate
student and frequently continue the research efforts for
their senior theses. The following are examples of
recent research projects:
For his senior thesis project, Chris Snively
'95, proposed that a surfactant could be added to
polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) displays to
act as a stabilizer similar to the way that
surfactants are used for a variety of emulsion
stabilizing applications. As a result of his
research, more uniform and better stabilized PDLCs
were developed which had exceptionally long
lifetimes and switched up to 100,000 times without
any perceivable structural changes. Time-resolved
infrared measurements showed that the stabilized
systems had faster switching on and off times. His
work has been submitted for publication. Because of
his success, he won the POLYED undergraduate
research award, a national prize administered by the
American Chemical Society.
During a summer research project, David Muzic
'97 demonstrated that more highly ordered liquid
crystal solvents offer the possibility of creating
polymer networks with much greater orientation.
These lead to significant changes in optical
behavior, and advantages for device characteristics
are expected. His research will soon appear in
Polymers for Advanced Technology, an international
scientific journal. Moreover, David participated in
the Waldo Semon National Undergraduate Research
Award Symposium and received a prize for his
excellent research. The influence of these networks
on device switching characteristics has also been
studied by Jessica Hoch '96 and Paul Dean '98.
Polyurethane elastomers have proven useful as
implanted medical devices such as artificial heart
valves. However, polyurethanes are susceptible to
oxidative biodegradation when implanted, resulting
in surface pitting and cracking. Although much
research has been devoted to understanding the
biodegradation of these elastomers under static
strain, very little research has focused on the
behavior of these materials under dynamic strain, as
in a beating heart. As part of Michael Wiggins' '96
senior project, he developed a method for easily
testing polyurethane films under dynamic biaxial
strain. He plans to continue his investigation as
part of his Master's thesis.
Nadim Qureshi '97 during his undergraduate
research studied the structure-property relationship
in a new set of polyethylenes with a broad range of
short-chain branching and narrow molecular weight
distributions synthesized by metallocene catalysts.
Deformation in uniaxial tension revealed elastomeric
response at high branch contents while at low branch
contents, it was similar to the semicrystalline
thermoplastics. The elastomeric response of highly
branched polyethylenes was studied in more detail in
light of the structural characteristics of low
crystallinity copolymers which entail bundle-like
crystalline morphology. Analysis using rubber theory
yielded results in agreement with the observed
structural and morphological characteristics.
Opportunities exist for research in other departments
also, so that students can receive multiple
perspectives. Kim Pham '98 spent the summer at Virginia
Tech Materials Science & Eng. Dept. She learned that
research can be both painstaking and enjoyable while
working on fabrication and mechanical testing of a new
water-based formulation for epoxy resins, proposed as a
replacement for less environmentally friendly cfc-based
resins. Brian Burkhart '98 carried out new
polymerization reactions at the Univ. Southern
Mississippi. Control of molecular weight is essential
for all applications for polymers; Brian's work aimed to
develop new thickeners for paints.
Undergraduate research always represents real
problems, and their work is often closely coupled with
the research efforts of graduate students. John Boyle
'98, tested and confirmed a model, developed by Prof.
Hudson and C. Rajaram, that predicts structure of
polymer networks. These networks are an important
component of new generation liquid crystal displays, and
their structure strongly influences display properties. |
