CBE Seminar – Brian Grady – Carbon Nanotube-Polymer Composites: Effect of Nanotubes on Polymer Physics

Prof. Brian Grady, Conoco-Dupont Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of Oklahoma will give a Seminar at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. The seminar is titled, “Carbon Nanotube-Polymer Composites: Effect of Nanotubes on Polymer Physics.”

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes are in many ways similar to polymers. Both molecules have contour lengths typically on the order of 1 micron, and, for single-walled tubes, diameters between 0.5 and 1 nm. In terms of physics, the significant difference between the two is the significantly larger inflexibility of a nanotube, which is quantified by an orders-of-magnitude larger persistence length. This talk will describe how nanotube and polymer physics interact with one another in composites of the two materials. While the talk will focus on work done in the author’s lab, important studies done by others will also be discussed. The author will also briefly discuss how these physics affect commercial products that contain nanotubes and finally discuss the challenges that still remain in this area.

Bio

Brian Grady received a B.S. from the University of Illinois in 1987, and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1994, both in Chemical Engineering.   Since 1994, he has been employed by the University of Oklahoma as a faculty member in the School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering, with a one-year sabbatical in 2000-2001 at the Max Planck for Colloid and Interface Science in Potsdam, Germany.   He is currently the Conoco-DuPont Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma and was also recently elected as a Fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers.    He is the Director of the Institute for Applied Surfactant Research at the University at Oklahoma, only the 3rd person to hold that title since the inception of the Institute 25 years ago.