Aug 29 2007
Svetlana Sukhishvili, Associate Professor in Stevens Institute of Technology’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology department, has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation. This NSF grant will support the project, “Materials World Network: US-Russia Collaboration on Responsive Micelles at Surfaces – A Combined Experimental and Theoretical Approach,” which Sukhishvili will direct.
This Materials World Network project is a combined theoretical and experimental study of novel polymer films which contain block copolymer micelles (BCMs) whose micellar structure will be designed to respond to external stimuli. The project brings together an international team of researcher-theoreticians from the Department of Physics of Moscow State University, Russia (MSU) with their expertise in polymer theory, and a research group at Stevens Institute of Technology (US) with their expertise in synthesis, self-assembly and characterization of thin polymer films at surfaces. The use of stimuli-responsive BCMs (whose cores can be used to carry cargo) in combination with layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly is a new approach which will be explored in this project. BCM-containing multilayers are able to carry and release large amounts of functional molecules in response to temperature or pH variations.
The Russian group will develop novel theoretical strategies based on weak and strong segregation approaches, a theory of reversible association-dissociation and Random Phase Approximation (RPA) method to elucidate the structure of BCM in BCM/polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) films. The US group will (1) synthesize novel pH- and temperature-responsive block copolymers which contain zwitterionic groups in the micellar corona, (2) study self-assembly of BCMs of these copolymers with a linear polyelectrolyte using LbL approach and (3) characterize micellar structure and morphology in self-assembled films before and after application of environmental stimuli.
“The research will yield guidelines for the construction of BCM/PEM films and, in a broader sense, will reveal major polymer structure-property relationships as applied to polymer self-assembly at surfaces. The development of BCM/PEM materials will meet a yet unmet need for environmentally triggerable polymer films which through changes in their structure can efficiently regulate the delivery of drugs, cosmetic compounds or fragrances,” said Sukhishvili.
A significant feature of the proposed collaboration is strong emphasis on education and exchange of faculty personnel and graduate students between the Russian and US labs. Visits of graduate students to MSU with the purpose of integrating theoretical and experimental knowledge of responsive BCM/PEM films in an international setting, exchange of teaching practices, enhancement of an international student exchange by participation of US students in an annual Student Conference on polymers and polymer films in Russia are planned. The US group will further disseminate the knowledge obtained during international exposure to undergraduate and high school students.