9405461 Mijovic This award supports cooperative research between Jovan Mijovic, Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, and Francesco Bellucci, University of Naples, Italy. The subject of their research is dielectric studies of reactive polymers and polymeric glasses. The collaboration takes advantage of the respective strengths of the U.S. and Italian researchers. Dr. Mijovic's expertise is in the areas of chemorheology of reactive systems and structural relaxations in the glassy state. Dr. Bellucci's research has covered the fundamentals of transport of water, gas, and ions through various media, and the use of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy as a fundamental probe of dielectric polarization. Current interest in dielectric properties of polymers reflects their growing use in printed board circuitry, electronic interconnect devices, microwave assemblies for radars, solid state batteries and fuel cells. The principal objective of the proposed work is to investigate reactive systems from the moment they are formulated, through their reactive stage, characterized by the formation of a three- dimensional network, and during subsequent behavior of these networks in the glassy state. The concept of monitoring the entire history of the network response in a system of precisely defined chemical composition, from its inception, has not been explored. A comprehensive picture of dielectric properties of reactive systems is expected to emerge from this study. * * *
