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Lecture Announcement
These events are organized by various sub-sets of the IEEE Toronto Section.
The contact person listed below is the volunteer who has arranged this event.
Please use the e-mail link provided if you have any questions, suggestions,
or concerns.
| Title
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Polymerization from the Surface of Single-Walled Carbon
Nanotubes - Synthesis, Characterization, and Properties
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| Speaker
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Professor Alex Adronov
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario
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| Day and Time
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Friday, January 16, 2004 at 2:00 p.m.
(refreshments will be served)
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| Location
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University of Toronto, Bahen Building, Room 1130 * location confirmed
40 St. George Street, Toronto
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| Organizer
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Circuits and Devices Chapter
(Electron Devices Society and Lasers and Electro-Optics Society)
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| Contact
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Frederick Chang, E-mail: fred.chang@utoronto.ca
No need to confirm your attendance - everyone welcome
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| Abstract
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Since their discovery by Iijima in 1991, carbon nanotubes have attracted
significant attention due to their interesting thermal, electronic, and
mechanical properties. Although numerous potential applications for
multi-walled and single-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs and SWNTs,
respectively) have been proposed, their commercial exploitation has,
thus far, been extremely limited. The highly insoluble nature of these
materials is one of the major limitations to their use as they cannot be
manipulated in solution using any known solvents. In an attempt to
overcome this limitation, we have focused on the utilization of polymers
as covalently attached solubilizing groups. By preparing a composite
between nanotubes and polymers, we intended to merge the favourable
properties of both structures into a single material. Atom Transfer
Radical Polymerization (ATRP) is a highly versatile technique for
conducting polymerizations in solution and from surfaces. We chose to
utilize ATRP in the grafting of well-defined polymers from the surface
of SWNTs by first linking ATRP initiators to the nanotubes. This was
accomplished by coupling initiators to phenol functionalities appended
to the SWNT sidewalls through 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition chemistry. The
resulting macroinitiators were then utilized in the polymerization of
methyl methacrylate and t-butyl acrylate. In addition, we have
investigated the use of ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP)
and nitroxide-mediated stable free-radical polymerization to attach
polymers to nanotubes. An overview of each of these techniques, as well
as characterization data for the final polymerized structures will be
presented with a focus on solubility properties of the SWNT-polymer
nanocomposites.
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| Biography
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BRIEF BIOGRAPHY:
B.Sc., McMaster University, 1996 - Chemistry
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 2001 - Polymer Chemistry
(supervisor: Prof. Jean M. J. Frechet)
Joined the Department of Chemistry, McMaster University, in 2001
Major awards: Polanyi Prize, 2002; Premier's Research Excellence Award, 2003.
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