William Seddon Email & Phone Number

Abingdon, England, United Kingdom

Sheffield, United Kingdom

Development and evaluation of a one-pot self-assembly route to switchable adhesivesA pH switchable adhesive was developed which can be applied directly to surfaces, and has an adhesive strength similar to an equivalent grafted-from polyelectrolyte adhesive. A series of synthetic transformations were used to mono-functionalise a calix[4]resorcinarene with either poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) or poly(methacrylic acid) using atom transfer radical polymerisation. This new material was then deposited onto hydrophobically modified silicon wafers using Langmuir-Schaefer deposition to give densely grafted monolayers of adhesive. Adhesion studies using hydrogels of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes showed that the measured adhesion was due to adhesive failure at the gel-monolayer interface, rather than the monolayer-wafer interface. The deposited material was shown to have a similar adhesive strength to material grafted from the surface, demonstrating that the calixarenes are sufficiently anchoring the polyelectrolytes to the substrate. When the calixarene brush layer was replaced with a polyelectrolyte multilayer deposited by layer-by-layer deposition for comparison, it could be concluded that the strength of the calix[4]resorcinarene binding compensates for any reduction in surface coverage in this system. Variation of the load applied showed that there is a dependency on the observed adhesion due to the onset of plastic deformation of the hydrogel.

Between July 2010 and July 2011 I undertook an industrial placement at the Atomic Weapons Establishment within the Tritium Technology Group, a sub-division of the Materials Science and Research Division.During my placement I was involved with the characterisation of contamination levels within the facility soft waste, the research and design of an acid dissolution line for waste assay of metal components, and the investigation of Ti-Ni super memory alloy behaviour over a slow heating range. I also produced a public domain essay for my university, which included a section on commonly used military explosives, their chemistry, and the science behind explosives in general.

Phd Chemistry, Cdt Molecular Scale Engineering

Activities and Societies: WWII Reenactment

Master Of Science, Molecular Scale Engineering, Distinction

Master Of Chemistry (Hons), Chemistry, 1St Class

Activities and Societies: Medieval Reenactment

Education record