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Dense Carbon Dioxide Assisted Polymer Processing at the Nanoscale

Ellis, Jeffrey LeClair
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1244033142

Abstract Details

2009, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Chemical Engineering.
Nanotechnology is continually becoming more integrated into consumer products used by the general public on a daily basis. Consumers reap the benefits of enhanced properties for these commercial products, and yet they are still affordable. For biomedical products, that include nanofeatures, this is not yet a reality. The materials and methods used to fabricate these products are still far too expensive. There are many inexpensive and commercially available polymers that have potential to be used in these advanced biomedical products, but the fabrication techniques still lack the simplicity required to create an inexpensive end product.Supercritical CO2 has been used to overcome the polymeric nanofabrication barriers for high throughput production of biomedical devices. Novel CO2-assisted low temperature polymer nanoprocessing fabrication techniques have been implemented for use in biomedical product creation. Polymer nanofabrication techniques such as bonding, imprinting, and active biomolecule immobilization were demenonstrated. Due to being CO2-assisted techniques, these processes are intrinsically inexpensive and environmentally benign. In order to thoroughly investigate these nanofabrication techniques the interactions between CO2 and the polymer were examined on a thermodynamic level. Thermodynamic modeling results of high pressure CO2/polystyrene systems were used along with experimental bonding, imprinting, and immobilization results. It was found that the solubility of CO2 in a polymer matrix and the resulting reduction of the polymer glass transition temperature (Tg) largely dictate the polymer chain mobility and therefore the polymer's processability. For instance, it was shown that the polymer bond strength of polystyrene, bonded via a CO2-assisted technique, depended largely on the proximity of the processing conditions to the reduced Tg curve. It was also found that low aspect ratio nanofeatures could be patterned by CO2-assisted nanoimprint lithography in polystyrene at conditions near the reduced Tg curve. These CO2-assisted low temperature polymer processing techniques are now better understood in terms of the CO2/polymer thermodynamic properties, thus making these, and other similar, techniques easier to control. This fundamental information can be applied to scaling-up these technologies so that inexpensive polymer biomedical products with nanofeatures can soon be commercially produced, thus benefiting the health of society.
David Tomasko (Advisor)
L. James Lee (Committee Member)
James Rathman (Committee Member)
Sherwin Singer (Committee Member)
304 p.
Chemical Engineering
polymer processing; polystyrene; supercritical CO2; nanotechnology; polymer bonding

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Ellis, J. L. (2009). Dense Carbon Dioxide Assisted Polymer Processing at the Nanoscale [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1244033142

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Ellis, Jeffrey. Dense Carbon Dioxide Assisted Polymer Processing at the Nanoscale. 2009. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1244033142.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Ellis, Jeffrey. "Dense Carbon Dioxide Assisted Polymer Processing at the Nanoscale." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1244033142

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1244033142
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© 2009, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.