The IUCRC Center for Hierarchical Emergent Materials (CHEM) will study the engineering of materials for applications such as paints, pigments, printed electronics, biomedical devices, consumer products, tires and other materials. The Center will develop a multidisciplinary approach to the design, simulation, and modeling of these materials to control electrical, structural, and chemical properties. The Center will host a research experience for undergraduates focusing on underrepresented minorities, women, differently abled scientists, and other groups by integrating these students across the three campuses and industrial partners for research projects.
The proposed CHEM IUCRC is to address chemical and biological products and processes where chemical and nanoscale manipulation and processing lead to the emergence of complex hierarchical structures with direct impact on performance. The proposed Center will advance developments in rheology, structure, simulation, and modeling for complex emergent structures, such as paint, inks, reinforced elastomers, complex personal health care products, polymer compounds, heterogeneous catalysts, and printed electronics. The Center will couple academic expertise in chemical synthesis, rheology, morphology, simulation, and modeling with industrial control of emergent structures governing features like gloss, haze, biocompatibility, electrical and ionic conductivity, and toughness. The Center will be organized in three thrusts: I. Disordered Structural Hierarchies including reinforced elastomers, synthetic skin, and pigments; II. Ordered Structural Hierarchies including semi-crystalline materials and synthetic approaches to self-assembly; and III. Surfactants and Coacervates including worm-like micelles, coacervates, and biometric assembly.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
