Figure 1 . SEM micrograph of a polymer substrate after sequential adsorption of

1. Simultaneous Tailoring of Surface Topography and Chemical Structure for Controlled WettabilityWei Chen, Mount Holyoke College, DMR 0209282 • The spontaneous adsorption of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVOH) has been demonstrated to be a general approach to hydrophilize hydrophobic solids and introduce versatile alcohol functionality to surfaces. PVOH is unusual because it is atactic yet semicrystalline. It is surface-active at hydrophobic solid/water interfaces and allows irreversible adsorption/crystallization to occur. Crosslinking the PVOH renders it stable to hot water and does not decrease wettability. Nanoscale inorganic layers, SiO2 and TiO2, were prepared on adsorbed PVOH layers and derivatized to other chemical functionalities by taking advantage of the versatile chemistry of these inorganic surfaces (Scheme 1). • Scheme 1. • The main research effort was on rationally control wettability of surfaces by individually and simultaneously manipulating surface topography and surface chemical structure. Surfaces with two different length scales of roughness (Figure 1) exhibit a wide range of wettability from hydrophobic, 150o/126o (A/R) to hydrophilic, 18o/8o (A/R). Figure 1. SEM micrograph of a polymer substrate after sequential adsorption of 0.35 and 0.10 m latex particles.

2. Simultaneous Tailoring of Surface Topography and Chemical Structure for Controlled WettabilityWei Chen, Mount Holyoke College, DMR 0209282 Education: Nine undergraduate students have been involved in this grant, three of whom are minority students. All of them have made significant contributions to the research program. Three refereed papers have been published in ACS journals; all of them are with Mount Holyoke College undergraduate co-authors. A patent is under evaluation by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Twelve invited presentations on the projects supported by this grant have been given by the PI. Each of these described research carried out by Mount Holyoke undergraduates. Four presentations have been given by undergraduate participants at national meetings. Mamle Quarmyne’s poster received the best poster award in the Colloid and Surface Division at the ACS meeting in August, 2002. Publications and Products (Undergraduate co-authors are underlined and corresponding authors are designated with a *): - Chen, W.* U. S. Patent, pending. - Takeshita, N.; Paradis, L. A.; Oner, D.; McCarthy, T. J.; Chen, W.* Langmuir, 2004, 20, 8131. - Kozlov, M.; Quarmyne, M.; Chen, W.*; McCarthy, T. J.* Macromolecules 2003, 36, 6054. - Quarmyne, M.; Chen, W.* Langmuir 2003, 19, 2533. • Human Resources/Outreach: • Taught a polymer tutorial to a group of middle and high school chemistry teachers. • Carried out the “Polymer Slime” experiment with 12 local high school minority students • Served on two panels to encourage graduate students to consider teaching/doing research at four-year undergraduate institutes. Research group 2006