Research Summary

My research interests are to characterize in microstructures of polymeric materials, where nanofillers are used to reinforce in polymer structures in order to improve material properties. Polymer blends are much difficult to characterize its molecular and internal structures compared to homopolymers since they are inherently phase separated when they mix with together. Because of their large aspect of ratios, using the nanofillers is an effective method to reduce the interfacial energy. It turns out to prevent against further phase segregations, where the nanofillers tend to be segregated onto interfaces between immiscible polymers in order to stabilize phases when heat is applied. These observations could be more complicated in a multi-component system: For example, addition of flame retardants is regarded as a phase in the polymer blend systems. Therefore, in order to fully understand the reinforced nancomposites with the nanofillers, it is required to learn that the interaction phenomena between polymer chains and nanofillers is need to be analyzed using a variety of comprehensive techniques.