Summary of Group Research

The Mauritz Research Group has created a number of novel organic/inorganic hybrid materials via sol-gel reactions that are conducted in polymeric media. Monomeric precursors to the inorganic phase include silicon and metal (Ti, Al, Zr) alkoxides, organo-alkoxysilanes, as well as combinations of these species for the purpose of generating mixed oxide nanophases. Mainly, high Tg polymers, including those of a high performance nature, nanophase-separated perfluorinated ionomers and hydrocarbon ionomers, as well as elastomeric hard/soft block copolymer architectures were employed as domain-targeted sol-gel reaction media. Nanophase-separated polymers can act as interactive sol-gel polymerization templates that influence the morphology of the inorganic phase. Microstructures of these materials are studied on all dimensional scales using NMR, FTIR, UV, fluorescence probe and dielectric relaxation spectroscopies as well as by TEM, SEM and AFM. Thermal, thermodegradative and mechanical properties are investigated using DSC, TGA, DMA and mechanical tensile analyses. Gas permeation evaluations yield information regarding free volume and dual phase morphology. MALDI-TOF MS is used to investigate the molecular weight of the host polymer and inorganic nanoparticles that are grown from functionalized endgroups of polymers.

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Questions or comments about this page can be mailed to Dr. Ken Mauritz at Kenneth.Mauritz@usm.edu