Deciphering Distributions: Advancing separation methodologies for the determination of physicochemical characteristics of polymeric materials
Polymeric materials, better known as plastics, are being made more and more complicated at the chemical level. How a plastic is constructed at the molecular level determines the properties of the material, such as its hardness, flexibility and strength. A good example of this is polyethylene. The old-fashioned plastic bags from the supermarket are made of this material and are very weak. But if you build polyethylene in a different way, it can become even stronger than steel.
If we can better measure and understand the molecular structure of plastics, we can also better link that structure to the final properties. However, this requires accurate analysis techniques. My research therefore focused on improving and using these measurement techniques in a smarter way, so that we can better map different physicochemical properties of plastics.
The research focused on ordinary plastics and plastic nanoparticles, or very small particles. Some plastics are difficult to dissolve, which makes it difficult to examine them. For one type of plastic, a way has been found to accurately analyze this material.
In addition, a new measurement method was compared with an existing method. The new way appears to provide valuable additional information that was previously lacking.
Finally, a method has been developed to measure the exact size and electrical surface charge of the minuscule particles. This knowledge can be widely used in various fields, such as medicine and the production of coatings.
More information on the thesis.