[CCoE Notice] ChBE Seminar: Unusual Aqueous Self-Assembly Behavior of Gemini Dicarboxylate Surfactants: New Approaches to Ion Transporting Media

[Grayson, Audrey A]

ChBE Dept. Seminar
10:30am-11:30am, Monday, May 19, 2014
Rm W122
Unusual Aqueous Self-Assembly Behavior of Gemini Dicarboxylate Surfactants: New Approaches to Ion Transporting Media
Prof Mahesh K. Mahanthappa
University of Wisconsin-Madison
ABSTRACT:
The hydration of small molecule amphiphiles with precisely defined amounts of water drives their supramolecular self-assembly into ordered lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs) with distinct aqueous and hydrophobic nanodomains. LLC materials serve as useful water desalination media, templates for mesoporous inorganic materials syntheses, and platforms for studying transmembrane protein structure and function. This talk will describe the unusual aqueous lyotropic self-assembly behavior of small-molecule gemini dicarboxylate surfactants into complex aqueous LLCs. We have recently demonstrated that the gemini architecture strongly favors the formation of technologically useful, triply periodic, multiply continuous morphologies such as the single and double gyroid structures. Through systematic variations in amphiphile structure, we demonstrate that this unique molecular platform enables subtle tuning of interfacial curvature in these assemblies and enables access to a previously unknown tricontinuous lyotropic network phase with unprecedented 3D-hexagonal symmetry. Based on these molecular design principles, I will also describe a method for producing mechanically robust nanoporous media with well-defined pore geometries, pore diameters, and pore functionalities with potential applications in selective molecular filtrations and selective ion transporting membranes for energy applications.


BIO:
A native of Boulder, Colorado, Mahesh K. Mahanthappa received his B.A. in Chemistry and Mathematics at the University of Colorado in 1997. As a Hertz Fellow at Stanford University, Mahesh studied the mechanisms of half-metallocene olefin polymerization catalysts under the supervision of Professor Robert M. Waymouth. Upon completion of his Ph.D. in 2003, Mahesh moved to a postdoctoral position at the University of Minnesota to work with Professors Frank S. Bates and Marc A. Hillmyer on aspects of block copolymer phase behavior and mechanical properties of polyolefin multiblock copolymers. Professor Mahanthappa joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Chemistry in 2006 and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 2012. The Mahanthappa group leverages chemical synthesis and physical materials characterization to identify new methods for manipulating block copolymer and lyotropic liquid crystal self-assembly into unique morphologies that manifest unusual bulk properties. Specific targets of interest include the development of degradable block copolymers and surfactants, electrochemically stable single-ion conductors for battery applications, and advanced molecular filtrations membranes. He has received an NSF CAREER Award (2008-2013), a 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, the Emil H. Steiger Distinguished Teaching Award and the James Taylor Teaching Award at UW-Madison, and the 2013 American Physical Society Dillon Medal in Polymer Physics.




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