This $381,000 three-year Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) supports research at Northwestern University to develop an accurate hierarchical modeling approach for understanding the structural and mechanical properties of polymer grafted nanoparticle materials. The research will employ molecular simulations, theory, and machine learning to explain how variability in nanoparticle and polymer graft size, known as dispersity,...
This National Science Foundation Project Grant of $436,084 supports research at Carnegie Mellon University from May 2022 through April 2025 under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049). The award will fund the development of novel methods to control interactions between polymer and nanomaterial constituents in polymer nanocomposites. Specifically, the grantee will synthesize brush particle model systems and characterize the structure evolution of liquid-crystal phase...
This $300,001 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Materials Research will fund collaborative research between Princeton University and other institutions to understand polymer adsorption mechanisms and optimize nanocomposite material properties. Over three years, the researchers will employ fluorescence experiments and molecular dynamics simulations to probe how irreversibly adsorbed polymer layers form at interfaces in films and nanocomposites. They aim to establish...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET) Project Grant award for $450,000 will support research on the rheology, or flow behavior, of polymer melts containing designed "hairy" nanoparticles. The project aims to: (1) experimentally investigate the rheology of polymer nanocomposites with different nanoparticle shapes, (2) develop and validate computational models to simulate these suspensions, and (3)...
This $221,462 Project Grant, awarded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Materials Research under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049), aims to develop advanced lightweight metal-matrix nanocomposites reinforced with nanoparticles. The primary research objective is to understand the fundamental mechanisms governing nanoparticle redistribution during the solidification process of these metal composites, in order to achieve better control over the final...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant award of $170,000.00, provided through the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CFDA 47.049) program, supports fundamental research on polymer nanocomposite materials at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). The key objectives are to: 1) elucidate how charged brush coatings affect the dispersion of nanoparticles in polyelectrolyte polymer matrices, 2) investigate the infiltration kinetics of polar polymers into bicontinuous scaffolds, and 3)...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $700,000 Project Grant under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CFDA 47.049) program to the University of Oregon. The funding supports a 5-year research project led by Professor Carl Brozek to study the surface properties of colloidal nanoparticles, particularly porous metal-organic framework (MOF) nanoparticles, using vibrational sum-frequency scattering spectroscopy (VSFSS). The research aims to gain fundamental insights into the impact of...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CFDA 47.049) program provides $273,291 to the University of California, Santa Barbara to develop computational tools that combine machine learning and scientific computing for the exploration and prediction of polymer systems. The goal is to accelerate the discovery of new materials and provide a framework for computationally costly problems across various scientific domains. The research...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) a $461,594 Project Grant under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CFDA #47.049) program. The 3-year grant, running from September 1, 2024 to August 31, 2027, will support research to advance the understanding of polymer gels, an important class of materials used in a variety of health, industrial, and defense applications. The project aims to correlate spatiotemporal fluctuations of individual polymer...
This $288,229 federal Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Materials Research supports theory, computation, and education to advance the engineering of nanoparticle-based materials. The project aims to develop a comprehensive computational framework to predict the structure and properties of functional nanomaterials, which will be made available to the broader research community. The work will be conducted at Iowa State University and involve collaborative...
This $246,000 three-year Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Materials Research supports research and educational activities at Columbia University related to polymer grafted nanoparticles. Specifically, the awardee will develop a hierarchical computational modeling approach to understand the structural and mechanical properties of materials composed solely of inorganic nanoparticles chemically grafted with polymer chains. The research aims to employ molecular simulations, theory, and machine learning to explain how variability in nanoparticle and polymer graft size impacts rheological and fracture properties. It also encompasses developing an adaptive machine learning model for multi-objective design of polymer grafted nanoparticles. To enrich STEM education, the awardee will create online learning modules on related topics. Funded under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049), this award addresses a knowledge gap around how nanoscale chemistry and structural variations govern properties in multi-component polymer grafted nanoparticle systems.