Dr. David Boyles, professor, chemistry, has been awarded a $525,000 grant by the Army Research Office. The three-year award, funded through the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) begins summer 2008. The Department of Defense (DoD) will award $15.7 million to 24 academic institutions in 18 states to perform research in science and engineering, under the fiscal 2008 Defense Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR).
"This award marks the fourth DEPSCoR award that South Dakota has received in the last four years, making the state one of the most successful in the DEPSCoR competition during this time period," James A. Rice, director, South Dakota EPSCoR Program, said.
The project is titled "Design and Synthesis of Fully Miscible Polycarbonate Blends for Transparent Armor Applications," and according to Boyles, it builds upon a decade of innovative polymer synthesis and computational modeling which has culminated in patents and disclosures by Boyles and his research group.
Many polymeric blends are only partially miscible, which means they only blend at certain concentrations, and their phase separation introduces opacity into the materials. The research Boyles will conduct focuses on the characterization and study of a specific family of novel polycarbonate blends with demonstrated true miscibility at all concentrations which form clear and tough materials.
The proposed research explores the connection between the remarkable physical properties of bisphenol-A-polycarbonate (BPA-PC) and its unique (e.g., unusually tight) entanglement network. Though more than 5 billion pounds of BPA-PC will be produced world-wide in 2007, a fundamental understanding of the role of its chemical structure leading to its excellent mechanical strength, ductility, and toughness is still lacking. This research will explore the hypothesis that BPA-PC's properties are due to a remarkable ease of entanglement, and that the chain entanglement spacing is in turn directly related to the monomer aspect-ratio.
"These blends were discovered at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and are of interest in providing improved processing and property enhancements for soldier protection and enhanced survivability of current and future ground and air combat vehicles," Boyles said. "Forming tough, transparent amorphous glasses they can therefore be directly incorporated into current army protection systems such as transparent armor for face shields, goggles, vehicle vision blocks, blast shields and aircraft canopies."
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