Smart Materials on the Menu at Science Cafe

A talk about smart materials that respond to stimuli was served up by Dr. Preston B. Moore, professor of chemistry & biochemistry, when he took part in the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter (LRSM) Science Café on Feb. 22, 2016, at Stoney’s British Pub in Wilmington, DE. The Science Cafés are science talks for laymen about materials-related topic of current interest.

Dr. Moore, who also is director for USciences West Center for Computational Chemistry and Drug Design, focused on the synthesis and simulations of smart materials that feature well-developed interfaces and stimuli-responsive behavior materials and their potential applications.

Materials that change in response to stimuli are very desirable for a range of applications from biometrics to energy storage. Recently, a facile synthetic route to binary polymer brushes and mosaic polymer brushes, which are novel and unique organizations of polymers at solid substrates, has been reported. Mosaic brushes are homogeneously distributed islands of densely grafted polymers, whereas the binary brushes are two immiscible polymers grafted to the surface.

The LRSM, is the center for materials research at the University of Pennsylvania. It was established in 1960 as one of the first Materials Research Laboratories to be funded by the forerunner of DARPA. The LRSM, through the NSF-supported Penn MRSEC, began the series of Science Cafés in 2011 to promote NOVA’s four part TV series on materials, ‘Making Stuff with David Pogue,’ on public television.

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