Theme: Intramolecular and Intermolecular Interactions in Solid Polymers

Speaker: Toshikazu Miyoshi, Professor, University of Akron
Host: Yan Cao, Research Scientist
Time: 15:30, January 17th, 2019

Venue: Conference Room 207, Office Building

Talk Abstract:

Characterization of polymer structure at the molecular scale is one of long standing issues in polymer science. Especially, understanding of inter-molecular and intra-molecular interactions, packing structures and reactions of polymers is a challenging subject in a condensed bulk state. For example, polymer crystallization induces drastic structural changes from random coils to folded chain crystals, where inter-molecular packing competes with intra-molecular packing. Various factors of crystallization kinetics, polymer concentration, entanglement densities, etc, potentially affect chain level structure and crystal morphologies. However, effects of physical and chemical parameters on intra- and inter-molecular packing are still open questions. In this talk, I will introduce our strategy which can distinguish intra-molecular from intra-molecular ones by using solid-state NMR spectroscopy. This strategy allows us to investigate polymer crystallization at the atomic scale. Moreover, I also would like to introduce our novel strategy to study chemical reaction of Poly(acrylonitrile) which is a major precursor for industrially important materials of carbon fibers.

About the Speaker:

Toshikazu Miyoshi obtained his Ph.D in Chemistry (1997) at Kyoto University, Japan. After postdoctoral work at Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, Germany, he joined National Institute of Advanced Technology and Industrial Science (AIST), Japan in 2000. He joined Department of Polymer Science at The University of Akron, as an Associate Professor in 2010 and was promoted to Professor. His research interests include developments of solid-state NMR techniques and their application to semi-crystalline and glassy polymers, self-assembly, and biomaterials. His scientific publication number is over 80. Since 2016, he is serving as Editorial Advisory Board members in Macromolecules and ACS Macro Letters.