Adhesion Science Short Course

Polymer nanocomposites; nanostructured materials and surfaces; polymer morphology and structure-property relationships; surface and interface phenomena in polymers. Applications: Additive manufacturing, composite processing, smart materials, advanced materials, structural composites, multifunctional coatings. Nanomaterial dispersion and characterization, manufacturing process development, novel nanocomposite characterization techniques, transport at polymer / particle interfaces and in multi-phase systems.

Physical chemistry and rheology of polymer solutions and colloidal suspensions with emphases on water-soluble polymers and suspensions in aqueous media; polymer adsorption at interfaces; waterborne adhesives; dispersion and processing of fine powders for coating, ceramic and composite applications.

Fracture and time dependent behavior of adhesives, elastomers and other polymeric materials; development of appropriate test methods for adhesive bonds; analytical and numerical (finite element) analysis of stresses in bonded joints; durability measurements and predictions for adhesive bonds.

Solution casting, spin-coating, self-assembly, and the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique for exploration of the physical chemical aspects of polymer dynamics in confined geometries and at surfaces and interfaces. Investigation of contemporary issues affecting nanotechnology like nanofiller reinforcement in polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)/polymer nanocomposites, magnetic nanoparticle-lipid interactions for drug delivery systems, and biomimetic engineering of cellulose/polymer interfaces in composites. Characterization techniques through neutron scattering and X-ray reflectivity at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and dynamic mechanical and thermal analysis (DMTA), rheology, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), surface light scattering (SLS), the fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) technique, ellipsometry, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and optical (OM), fluorescence (FM), atomic force (AFM), scanning electron (SEM), transmission electron (TEM), and Brewster angle (BAM) microscopy.

Characterization of the wood-adhesive bondline with emphasis on thermosetting adhesives for wood-based composites, latex adhesives and reactive hotmelts, analysis of the effects of wood-adhesive interactions as they control the morphology and chain dynamics of the bondline, performance evaluation through fracture testing.

Synthesis and characterization of interfacially active polymeric systems including block, graft, and star copolymers. Interfacial adhesion in polymer blends and polymer coatings on inorganic substrates. Synthesis of block copolymer adhesion promotors and pressure sensitive adhesives via living polymerization methodologies, in-situ FTIR spectroscopic studies on urethane-based adhesive kinetics, synthesis of liquid crystalline and semi-crystalline polyesters, ionomeric hotmelt polyesters with decreased melt viscosity, adhesion studies in semi-conductor fabrication, and adhesion between bio-derived molecules and organic polymer substrates.