An intensive short course at the University of Minnesota designed to give practicing engineers and chemists an understanding of rheology fundamentals, principles of measurements, and applications to problem solving. Again this year: condensed four-day course (with optional Sunday evening and Friday morning sessions).

For further information: www.cems.umn.edu/rheology
Contact: Dr. David Giles (Phone: 612.625.0880 or E-mail: giles@cems.umn.edu)

Accommodations for the Short Course:
Request the Rheological Measurements or IPrime rate at the Radisson University Hotel, located one block from meeting locations.

Accommodations for the 2010 IPrime Annual Meeting:

You may reserve rooms through the Radisson directly and ask for the IPrime or Rheological Measurements, U of MN rate.

A Short Course in Coating Process Fundamentals is being taught at the University of Minnesota. This 3-day course covers fundamentals from liquid coating flows and application methods to solid coating development. The course is taught by a team of University and industrial lecturers. Lab tours and a complete set of notes are included. Enrollment is limited; early registration is encouraged.

For further information: read the course page
Contact: Dr. Lorraine F. Francis (Phone: 612.625.0559 or E-mail: lfrancis@umn.edu)

Accommodations for the Short Course:
Request the Coatings Fundamentals & Chemical Engineering or IPrime rate at the Radisson University Hotel, located one block from meeting locations.

Radisson Booking instructions:
Book via the Radisson Hotel directly and mention Coatings Fundamentals & Chemical Engineering or IPrime at the U of MN.
Go to www.radisson.com/univ_minneapolis

View presentations from the 2009 Annual Meeting

Prospective members interested in attending the meeting as a guest should contact Bob Lewis at 612-625-1269 or by e-mail lewis@cems.umn.edu

Your organization is not an IPrime member yet, but you would like to attend the meeting? Please contact Bob Lewis at 612-625-1269 or lewis@cems.umn.edu

View presentations from the 2009 Annual Meeting

Prospective members interested in attending the meeting as a guest should contact Bob Lewis at 612-625-1269 or by e-mail lewis@cems.umn.edu

Your organization is not an IPrime member yet, but you would like to attend the meeting? Please contact Bob Lewis at 612-625-1269 or lewis@cems.umn.edu

The Microstructured Polymers Program will offer a workshop on January 14, Thursday

Workshop title: Polymer Toughening

Check back for more information in late fall 2009

Visit IPrime "News & Events" and "Workshops" to view previous year's workshops

He is advised by Chris Macosko.

An abstract of his thesis follows.

Below is an abstract of his thesis:

The coarsening of cocontinuous blends were studied using novel 3D imaging techniques and reheology. Laser scanning confocal microscopy coupled with differential geometry were used to obtain and analyze 3D images of cocontinuous fluorescently-labeled polystyrene/styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer blends. Algorithms to extract information of the size, shape (curvature) and anisotropy of the interface were developed. The time evolution of the size, curvatures and elastic modulus were monitored. From the analysis of the size and curvature, two regimes of coarsening were identified, namely, an early regime where the microstructure growth is linear and self-similar and a late regime where the rate of coarsening slows down and non self-similarity was observed. Similar to the interfacial area, the elastic modulus decreased during the coarsening process. A simplification to Doi-Ohta's model was proposed to quantitatively relate morphological and rheological changes during annealing of the blends. Good agreement was observed for blends with low interfacial tension in the late regime of coarsening.

The Poster Session & Reception is happening the evening of November 17. Anyone is welcome to exhibit at the poster session.

And new this year, the Nanofabrication Center is offering three special workshops on device fabrication during the 2009 Nanotechnology Conference.

Expand your skills and learn how nanofabrication techniques can improve your product.

For complete information about this year's event and registration, visit the conference website.

Log-in to view the Webcast.

Read the thesis abstract by Hyunwoo Kim.

Log-in to view the Webcast.

Read the thesis abstract by Hyunwoo Kim.

To view the presentation, you will be asked for your e-mail address and a password. Don't know or have forgotten your IPrime password? Contact Bob Lewis by e-mail or at 612-625-1269; Lisa Wissbaum by email or at 612-626-9509. The recorded presentation will be available for viewing online after Sept. 9 for four weeks.

This Webcast requires QuickTime 7. To test your system prior to the Webcast or to download QuickTime 7, visit the Streaming Video Requirements page.

Visit the event Web site for updates. We hope you will join us for this Webcast.

Thesis abstract by Hyunwoo Kim below
A unique combination of excellent electrical, thermal and mechanical properties has made graphene a multi-functional reinforcement for polymers. Exfoliated carbon sheets can be obtained from graphite oxide (GO) via either rapid pyrolysis (functionalized graphene sheets, FGS) or chemical modification (isocyanate treated graphite oxide, iGO). Solvent-based blending led to better dispersion of FGS in thermoplastic polyurethane than melt processing. Polyurethane became electrically conductive at even less than 0.5 wt% of FGS. Up to 10 fold increase in tensile stiffness and 90% decrease in nitrogen permeation of TPU were also observed with only 3 wt% of iGO implying high aspect ratio of exfoliated platelets. Dispersion of melt compounded graphite and FGS in poly(ethylene-2,6-naphthalate) was characterized with electron microscopy, X-ray scattering, melt rheology and solid property measurements. Unlike graphite, dispersion of FGS quantified from different routes spreads over a wide range due to structural irregularity and simplified assumptions for composite property modeling. For polycarbonate, flow-induced orientation reduced property gains by graphene dispersion, while quiescent-state annealing restored rigidity and electrical conductivity of the composites. Micro-structural evolution of FGS in polystyrene through annealing was monitored using melt-state rheological and dielectric measurements. Graphene-based polymer nanocomposites can be a new versatile soft material with numerous benefits.

For further information, please contact Jinping Dong, dongx033@umn.edu, 612-625-1841) or Bob Hirche at Witec (bob.hirche@witec-instruments.com)

Thursday, Oct 15, 2009
University of Minnesota, Weisman Art Museum
333 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Room: Level 1, William G. Shepherd Room
8:30 - 5:00pm

The workshop will give a detailed introduction to the operational principles and instrumental configurations relevant to Confocal Raman and Scanning Probe Microscopy (AFM, NSOM, Pulsed Force Mode). The speakers will cover several aspects of modern Raman imaging and its fields of applications. An extensive demo session gives the participants the opportunity to apply this knowledge. Scientists interested in how to structurally and chemically identify and image the compounds of a sample at the highest spatial resolution are invited to participate. Typical research fields for SPM and Confocal Raman imaging are pharmaceutics and cosmetics, materials and polymer sciences, archaeology and geosciences, forensics, coatings, thin films, biomedical/biological systems and all fields where a clear identification of the distribution of chemical compounds is a necessity.

The workshop is free of charge, but registration is required. To register, please fax your detailed contact information to WITec GmbH: fax# +49(0)14070200 or e-mail to events@witec.de. Directions will be sent upon confirmation.
For questions, please contact: Dr. Jinping Dong at the Characterization facility of U of MN (dongx033@umn.edu, 612-625-1841), or Bob Hirche from
Witec (865-984-4445, bob.hirche@witec-instruments.com)

Program (below) (PDF version)

8:30 - 8:45AM Coffee & Registration

8:45 - 8:50AM Welcome and introduction
Dr. Jinping Dong, U of MN

8:50 - 8:55AM Introduction to IPrime
Bob Lewis (Director), U of MN

8:55 - 9:00AM Introduction to Characterization Facility
Dr. Greg Haugstad (Director), U of MN

9:00 - 10:00AM Introduction to High Resolution Optical and Scanning Probe Microscopy
Dr. Thomas Dieing (Witec Instruments)

10:00 - 10:45AM Combining High-Resolution Optical and Scanning Probe Microscope
Dr. Jianyong Yang (Witec Instruments)

10:45 - 11:00AM Coffee Break

11:00 - 11:45AM Sophisticated Data Evaluation with the WITec Project Plus Software
Dr. Thomas Dieing (Witec Instruments)

11:45 - 13:00PM Lunch (on site, complements of Witec)

13:00 - 13:45PM Plasmon Coupling between a Gold Colloid and a Gold Film and its Implications on Tip Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy
Dr. Albert Chang (Rice University)

13:45 - 14:05PM Confocal Raman Microscopy for Plasmonics
Dr. Sang-Hyun Oh (Dept. Electrical and Computer Engineering)

14:05 - 14:25PM New Method for Imaging Uptake and Intracellular Fate of Gold Nanoparticles: Confocal Raman Microscopy
Neha Shah (Dept. of Mechanical Engineering)

14:25 - 14:45PM Characterizing the Distribution of Nonylphenol Ethoxylate Surfactants in Water-based Pressure-Sensitive Adhesive Films using Atomic-Force and Confocal Raman Microscopy
Dr. Helen Guizhen Xu (Dept. Of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering)

14:45 - 15:00PM Dynamic Imaging of Therapeutic Biomedical Coatings in Aqueous Medium
Dr. Jinping Dong (Characterization Facility)

15:00 - 17:00PM Equipment Demonstration, Hands-On Session & Discussion

We will also host a meeting with Prof. Bellare BEFORE the seminar (11am, same room) if you would like to discuss cryoTEM from a beginner's perspective. This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about what the technique is capable of. If you are interested in this pre-seminar meeting, please RSVP to Alon McCormick (mccormic@cems.umn.edu).

The July 31 issue of Science contains back-to-back articles from IPrime researchers. In the first article, the Tsapatsis group (NMP) reports a method to eliminate defects from porous zeolite membranes that have applications in the filtration and separation of small molecules [1]. In the second article, the Norris group (NMP & REM), in collaboration with the Oh group from Electrical and Computer Engineering, describes a simple technique to create ultrasmooth patterned metals for applications in plasmonics and metamaterials [2].

[1] J. Choi, H.-K. Jeong, M. A. Snyder, J. A. Stoeger, R. I. Masel, M. Tsapatsis, Science 325, 590 (2009). (link)
[2] P. Nagpal, N. C. Lindquist, S.-H. Oh, D. J. Norris, Science 325, 594 (2009).

[1] J. Choi, H.-K. Jeong, M. A. Snyder, J. A. Stoeger, R. I. Masel, M. Tsapatsis, Science 325, 590 (2009). (link)
[2] P. Nagpal, N. C. Lindquist, S.-H. Oh, D. J. Norris, Science 325, 594 (2009).

More information

Days: Tue, Wed 4:00-5:30pm

Location: 7-193/195 WDH

This graduate level course will be offered during Fall 2009, and will be taught by Ron Siegel (Pharmaceutics/BME), Jayanth Panyam (Pharmaceutics), and Chun Wang(BME), with a couple of guest lectures by J.C. Keister (retired from 3M).

Days: Tue, Wed 4:00-5:30pm

Location: 7-193/195 WDH

This graduate level course will be offered during Fall 2009, and will be taught by Ron Siegel (Pharmaceutics/BME), Jayanth Panyam (Pharmaceutics), and Chun Wang (BME), with a couple of guest lectures by J.C. Keister (retired from 3M).

Download pdfs of Syllabus and Lecture Schedule

IPrime does not handle course registration, and usual fees apply. Registration guidelines can be found here: http://onestop.umn.edu/registration/guidelines/index.html