Virginia Tech researchers have designed a new type of polymer surface modifier that could result in more universal adhesives because material surfaces could be "switched" to interact with different kinds of molecules.
The research will be presented at the American Chemical Society's 220th national meeting in Washington, D.C. Aug. 20-24,
Chemistry professor Timothy Long explains, "We are making block polymers where we tune the adhesive properties on a surface. Now, different surfaces require different adhesives. We 'tune', or add a treatment, so the surface of a material will interact with another molecule or a range of molecules.
"Since the surface properties are switchable, some people might say the surface becomes 'smart'. The work represents a future direction in adhesion science," says Long.
The research being presented was led by Tom Ward's graduate student, Jianli Wang. Long says, "The student did a superb job. He did the synthesis with my group, then he did the characterization work with Dr. Ward, who is a chaired professor in Virginia Tech's Center for Adhesive Science. This development wouldn't have happened without this collaboration."
The poster "Central functionalized asymmetric tri-block copolymers for surface modification with switchable surface properties (POLY 64)," authored by Wang, Long, and Ward, will be presented at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 20, in the Grand Hyatt Hotel Independence Ballroom A. It has also accepted for publication in the Journal of Polymer Science Part A, Polymer Chemistry.
Learn more about Virginia Tech chemistry research at www.chem.vt.edu. Specific information is available under the faculty member's name.
PR Contact: Susan Trulove
540-231-5646 strulove@vt.edu
Journal
Journal of Polymer Science