Center for Functional Nanomaterials Seminar

Combinatorial methodology has changed the paradigm of pharmaceutical synthesis and it is moving to have a similar impact in materials science. Although the primary emphasis has been on discovery of new materials or catalysts, we have emphasized the use of high-throughput approaches to generate experimental data over the multi-parameter space that is typical of polymeric materials. By carefully designing libraries and measurements to investigate structure and function with variations of composition and processing we can rapidly explore basic phenomena of polymer physics. We have applied the combinatorial approach to study structure and function in polymer thin films, biomaterials, polymer blends, filled polymers, and semi-crystalline polymers. We will describe some simple and transferable examples of library fabrication and high-throughput measurements to show how measurements in complex systems can be validated and the data can provide new understanding, even in areas that have been investigated extensively.