Dissertation Topic: Designing multifunctional, flame retardant monomers, polymers, and processed blendsAdvisors: Professor Todd Emrick and Professor Alan LesserDepartment of Polymer Science and Engineering• Designed branched, aromatic polyesters that exhibited high char residues for enhanced flame retardancy by developing a novel AB2 deoxybenzoin monomer polymerized by polyesterification.• Evaluated the viscosity characteristics of linear commodity polymers when blended with novel branched polymers for shear-induced formation of char-forming surface layers.• Synthesized epoxy-amine networks comprised of allyl-functionalized deoxybenzoin epoxy monomers which achieved ultra-low heat release properties and provided reactive routes to multi-stage curing.Deoxybenzoin-containing polymer blends with improved flame retardance• Incorporated deoxybenzoin molecular additives and polymers into blends with thermoplastic polymers (PET, PLA, LLDPE, PES) which achieved notably low heat release properties without diminishing key materials performance attributes.

Structure-property relationships of stimuli-responsive diblock copolymers Advisor: Professor Elizabeth GlogowskiDepartment of Materials Science• Synthesized poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PEG-b-PDMAEMA) diblock copolymers using ATRP with varying block and polymer molecular weight and characterized the influence of structure on the thermo- and pH-responsive properties.• Investigated structure-property relationships of stimuli-responsive PDMAEMA homopolymers with linear and new branched architectures.• Engineered thermo-responsive diblock copolymers with tailored LCST behavior, viscosity, and interfacial tension properties for their use in chemical enhanced oil recovery.