Polymers, Assembling dendritic and branched molecules at interfaces

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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
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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