Location
Wilsdorf Hall, Room 324
Lab
PO Box 400471
PO Box 400471
Charlottesville, VA 22904

About

Our research group focuses on the synthesis of well-defined nanoparticles, their dispersion into polymer solutions and melts, and their suspension rheology.

First, we study the mechanisms that produce well-defined nanoparticles and then use this knowledge to optimize for a range of industrially relevant properties such as particle stability, surface expression, or catalytic activity. We are also interested in developing timely methods for determining nanoparticle growth rates inside of emulsions which are used in formulating a variety of commercial products like fiber-optic coatings, automotive finishes, and chromatographic packings.

Second, we examine how grafting uniform polymers to the interfaces of well-defined nanoparticles affects their rheological behavior in polymer solutions and melts. With our fundamental studies, we seek to optimize processing to achieve a desirable microstructure in industrial suspensions, and to set a foundation for developing constitutive rheological models that predict the complex behavior of industrial suspensions. To this end, we use rheological and rheo-optical measurements to elucidate how the interactions within model suspensions affect their flow at nano-, micro-, and macroscopic length scales the full range of interactions that effect the processing of engineered materials.

Education

​B.S. Boston University, 1991

M.S. University of Maryland, 1997

Ph.D. University of Maryland, 2001

Research Interests

Colloids and Interfaces
Assembly and Rheology
Soft Materials and Soft Matter

Selected Publications

Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of Microphase Separation in Mixed Thiol Monolayers on Silver Nanoparticles, ACS Nano, 10, 9871-9878 (2016). S.N. Merz, Z.J. Farrell, C.J. Dunn, R.J. Swanson, S.A. Egorov, and D.L. Green
“Development of Experiment and Theory to Detect and Predict Ligand Phase Separation on Silver Nanoparticles,” Angewandte Chemie, 54, 6479–6482 (2015). Z. Farrell, S. Merz, J. Seager, C. Dunn, S. Egorov, D.L. Green
“Thermal and Rheological Behavior of Polymer Grafted Nanoparticles,” Macromolecules, 48, 8651–8659 (2015). D.F. Sunday and D.L. Green
“Quantification of Nanoparticle Interactions in Pure Solvents and a Concentrated PDMS Solution as a function of Solvent Quality,” Langmuir, 29, 9991-10000 (2013). N. Dutta, Y. Yang, Sergei Egorov, and D.L. Green
“A Straightforward, One-Step Synthesis of Alkanethiol Capped Silver Nanoparticles,” Langmuir, 29, 9291-9300 (2013). Z. Farrell, and C. Shelton, C. Dunn, D.L. Green
“A Phase Diagram for Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticles in Homopolymer Matrices,” Macromolecules, 45, 4007–4011 (2012). D. Sunday, J. Ilavsky, D.L. Green.

Awards

Visiting Researcher, Forschungszentrum Jülich (Jülich Research Center in Germany) 2013
NSF CAREER Award 2007-2012
NSF International Research Fellow, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium 2003-2004