Honors Theses
Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Chemical Engineering
First Advisor
John O'Haver
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
Emulsion polymerization has been used for decades to synthesize polymer latexes for both industry and academia, and theory suggests that the process may also be useful in the detailed study of individual polymer chains or “nanofibers”. To date, however, no successful attempts have been made to use emulsion polymerization in such a manner. Therefore, this work seeks to gather information about polymer nanofibers formed through emulsion polymerization and, as a result, incite its use for similar research in the future. Emulsion polymerization was used to create numerous polystyrene solutions with varying concentrations of cetyltrimethylammonium p-toluenesulfonate (surfactant) and sodium chloride (salt). Those solutions were then diluted and extracted in several different ways (changing solvents, substrates, etc.) to achieve meaningful images under an atomic force microscope. Ultimately, clear images of tightly coiled nanofiber strands were attained. In addition, valuable qualitative trends were observed in terms of surfactant concentration, which affects polymer chain length, and salt concentration, which affects polymer chain stability. Therefore, conceptually, the general procedure proved successful, but further work needs to be done to perfect the extraction and imaging of the nanofibers.
Recommended Citation
Hankins, James Douglas, "Synthesis of Polymer Nanofibers Through Emulsion Polymerization" (2003). Honors Theses. 2213.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2213
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