MRSEC Participant: Nigel Milbridge

MRSEC Faculty Advisor: Tim Lodge

Differential Scanning Calorimetery of Glassy Mixtures

The purpose of my research was to make polymer blends of various sorts and analyze them using a Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC). Several blends were made that ranged from solvent/solvent mixtures to high molecular weight polymer mixtures. These mixtures were made to help try and understand the relationship between two characteristics of the glass transition phase and the variation of molecular weight in these mixtures. The two aspects of the glass transition phase that we were looking at were the point of T_g and the width of the transition itself. The point of T_g is where the substance starts breaking apart, and loses its cohesive properties due to increase in kinetic energy.