Professor James Economy's Group
|
|
Professor
Economys Group Currently Pursues the Following
Areas of Research on Advanced Materials ·
Synthesis of High
Performance Aromatic Copolyesters, Polymer Blends ·
Design of New Types of
Adsorption Systems, Activated Carbon Fiber ·
Development of Novel
Polymer, Ceramic and Metal Matrix Composites. Carbon/BN Composite Bactericides Materials Previous Materials Advancements The
work on the aromatic copolyesters had its origins in
Professor Economy's discovery and commercial development
some years ago of the liquid crystalline aromatic
copolyesters. ($100 million industry today). In the last
several years Economy's group has moved into completely
new directions based on this earlier work including
design of a completely new family of very high
temperature thermosetting, resins, fundamental studies on
the role of interchain transesterification reactions
(ITR) with respect to randomizing or ordering the
sequence distribution in these copolyesters and further
tailoring of these new materials for use as ultra low
dielectric constant substrates, matrices for advanced
composites, high performance adhesive bonds, and
photoimageable films. Related
activities currently underway include a new approach to
recycling the crosslinked polyester (using ITR), solid
state processing of the cured polyesters and generating
nanofoamed structures stable to over 400oC. The
program on new types of adsorption systems had its origin
in an earlier discovery by Professor Economy of activated
carbon fibers (currently $10 million sales). Starting in
1990 he initiated a program to better understand the
fundamental mechanisms governing adsorption and
desorption of contaminants by high surface area carbons
and to reduce the cost of the fibers ~$100/lb. Major
progress has been made in characterizing the nature of
the micropores using STM and tailoring the chemistry of
the micropore surface to selectively adsorb trace
contaminants. As a result, his group is very close to
establishing a comprehensive understanding of the
mechanism of adsorption as well as a capability to remove
contaminants down to the low ppb range. His group has
also developed a new kind of activated carbon fiber which
costs ~ $1.00/lb, and has 15 X the wear resistance of the
current material. His group is currently exploring
commercial development of the new material through a
novel concept of establishing a "virtual
business." Areas for research currently include
design of these new fibers for water purification, air
clean-up, protective clothing (and masks), catalyst
supports and continued elucidation of the fundamental
mechanisms of adsorption and desorption. Completely new
types of systems for either adsorption or separation of
contaminants are now being developed. In
the area of "ceramic and metal matrix composites
(MMC's)" Professor Economy has two programs
underway. In the case of ceramics, he and his group have
recently shown that they can prepare carbon fiber/BN
matrix composites starting with an easily processible
borazine oligomer. One of the unique features of the
borazine oligomer is its tendency to form a liquid
crystalline phase (this is to our knowledge the first
inorganic liquid crystalline polymer reported). This
feature greatly reduces the potential for stress at
interfaces due to CTE mismatches, because of the unique
capability of LCP's to organize at interfaces. With this
easily processed oligomer Economy's group is exploring a
wide range of areas including low dielectric constant
substrates for microelectronic devices, adhesives for
metal-ceramics and a wide range of carbon and inorganic
fiber composites. Of particular interest is the potential
use of the C/BN as an aircraft brake, since it shows 20%
of the rate of wear observed with commercially used C/C. In
the case of MMC's Economy's group has been exploring use
of ultra high strength-modulus, single crystal flakes of
AlB2 as a reinforcement for aluminum. This work has
progressed to the point where high aspect ratio flakes
can be formed in a molten aluminum alloy at a
concentration of 5-10% flakes. The knowledge to generate
very high aspect ratio flakes > 100/1 has now been
developed. Work to concentrate the flakes to higher
volume loadings is underway to further maximize the
mechanical properties of this novel family of composites.
For
more information on breakthrough research which we are
currently conduction which is not yet in a form to have
it's own research page, look here. Each project will have
a short description and the current researcher's contact
information. Each of the above projects also contains
information which we cannot disclose here over the world
wide web. We implore you to contact the researcher for
the project you are interested in to learn more
information. If necessary, non-disclosure agreements are
available |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||