THE SCHOOL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Under the provisions of the regulations for the degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

on Wednesday, March 22, 2017

10:00 AM
in Love 210

will be held the

DISSERTATION PROPOSAL DEFENSE

for

Collen Leng

"Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Materials Synthesized via Vapor Phase Infiltration"

Committee Members:

Prof. Mark Losego, Advisor, MSE

Prof. Karl Jacob, MSE

Prof. Zhiqun Lin, MSE

Prof. Matthew McDowell, ME/MSE

Prof. Samuel Graham, ME

Abstract:

Plastics are used from high-tech devices to everyday products. They are light, flexible, and typically inexpensive. By incorporating inorganic constituents, these common materials can be infused with new properties. These hybrid materials have the potential of combining the best of both worlds in terms of providing properties that might not be offered by organic or inorganic materials alone. In this proposed work, organic-inorganic hybrid materials are synthesized via the emerging method of vapor phase infiltration (VPI) and characterized for novel properties. VPI infiltrates polymers with metalorganic precursors commonly used in chemical vapor deposition. The precursors can react with polymer functional groups or co-reactants at low processing temperatures (below 200 oC) to create hybrid materials. The goal of this work is to describe VPI kinetics through both ex-situ and in-situ measurements and introduce novel material properties of polymers transformed through this process. New knowledge created from this work will help the hybrid materials research community to rapidly develop VPI processing for scientific and commercial purposes.