Polymers, Assembling dendritic and branched molecules at interfaces

1. Polymers, Assembling dendritic and branched molecules at interfaces Vladimir Tsukruk, Georgia Institute of Technology, DMR 0646958 Major Accomplishments, 2006-2007 • Educational achievements and related professional activities • Kirsten Genson received PhD and moved to NIST as an NRC Postdoctoral Fellow (January 2006) • Kirsten Genson was awarded ISU Zaffarano Prize (Best student research productivity at ISU, April 2006) • Melbs Lemieux received PhD and moved as a post-doc to Stanford(Z. Bao) • Melbs Lemieux was awarded ISU Research Excellence Award (best PhD in MSE Department, July 2006) • Melbs Lemieux was awarded CIA Post-doctoral Fellowship to continue his research at Stanford (July 2007) • Kyle Anderson, REU, received Best Paper Award for Undergraduate Research in Polymer Science (ACS Meeting, March 2006) • Kathy Bergman, former REU,received NSF GAANN Fellowship, July 2006 and AFRL summer internship, May 2007 • -Maryna Ornatska received PhD and moved as a post-doc to Clarkson U. (S. Minko) • Sergey Peleshanko received ISU Zaffarano Prize (April 2007) and Research Excellence Award (May 2007) • Sergey Peleshanko received PhD and moved to HP Research Center, SD (July 2007) • 23 refereed publications in the course of the project (2002-2007) (Nano Lett., Adv. Mater., Macromolecules, Langmuir, etc) • Collaboration: McGrath (Arizona), Vaknin (Ames Lab/APS), Malapragada (Ames Lab), Zubarev (Rice), Tsitsilianis (Patras), Lee (Yonsei), Shibaev (Moscow), Shevchenko (Kiev), Petrash (NSC), Bunz (GT) • Symposium on Highly Branched Polymers organized by the PI at 2006 ACS Natl. Meeting featured 60 presenters • An invited, comprehensive (130 pages) review article on highly branched molecules is submitted to Progress in Polymer Science Our research is focused on an understanding the surface assembly of novel, highly branched molecules including multiarm star block-copolymers, rod-dendrons, tri-functional hyperbranches, and silver-binding hyperbranches critical for prospective nanotechnological applications. We have observed assembly of multiarm star molecules in cylindrical micelles and denritic morphologies (Fig. 1), using dendronized grafts for responsive sandwiched nanolayers (Fig. 2), and dense fluorescent web formation from rod-dendron ribbons (Fig. 3). Fig. 1. Surface assemblies of multiarm (32) star macromolecules with different arm compositions (PS-blue, PEO-red, 5 mm x5 mm) Langmuir, 2006, 22, 6168

2. Polymers, Assembling dendritic and branched molecules at interfaces Vladimir Tsukruk, Georgia Institute of Technology, DMR 0646958 Major Accomplishments, 2006-2007 Fig. 3. Fluorescent web (FOM and SEM) with star-shaped aggregates and twisted ribbon-like structures from amphiphilic rod-dendron molecules (top and left) and bilayer-ribbon ordering suggested based on X-ray data (bottom right). Nano Lett. 2006, 6, 435 Fig. 2. Responsive stratified layer with unchanged surface properties : PNIPAAM intralayer capped with dendronized surface layer (top) shows temperature-sensitive thickness (middle) and elastic response (bottom). Langmuir, 2007, 23, 25