IRG 1: Microstructured Polymers

The next generation of polymer-based materials will rely on the incorporation of multiple components to achieve superior and tunable properties; this, in turn, will require control over chemical connectivity and morphology from the nanometer scale up to microns. The thermodynamic incompatibility of most polymer pairs demands a flexible strategy for designing hybrid materials in both equilibrium and non-equilibrium structures. Block copolymers exemplify such a strategy, as they offer direct routes to manipulating morphology, establishing the desired microstructural length scales, reinforcing interfacial properties, and incorporating diverse chemical and physical functionality. Our unifying theme is to employ block copolymers to direct the structure and function of microstructured macromolecular materials. Efficient development of such materials requires parallel advances in molecular design and synthesis, prediction and characterization of microstructure, understanding of dynamics and processing, and property optimization.

IRG 1 research areas:
Water Compatible Polymers
Multiply Continuous Morphologies
Processing with Block Copolymers
Innovative Applications of Block Copolymers

The principal investigators and their primary areas of expertise are:

• Marc Hillmyer, program leader - Polymer synthesis, characterization
• Frank Bates - Thermodynamics, scattering, synthesis
• Lorraine Francis - Ceramic synthesis and processing, composites
• Alexander Grosberg - Biophysics, theory
• Efrosini Kokkoli - Biopolymers, targeted drug delivery
• Timothy Lodge - Polymer dynamics, solutions, scattering
• Christopher Macosko - Rheology, processing
• Dave Morse - Theory and modeling