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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal;page-break-after:avoid'><b><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>MS Thesis Defense<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Development of poly(lactic acid) blended with layered silicates<br><br><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Yoo Rang Heo<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Date: Friday, April 26th, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Location:</span></b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> Mechanical Engineering Small Conference Room <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Time: </span></b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>2:00 pm<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>Committee Chair: <o:p></o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'>Dr. Ramanan Krishnamoorti<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Layered silicates are used for organic/inorganic hybrid fillers to reinforce the polymers. Dispersion of polymer and layered silicate is important because phase separation leads to weak interaction which makes poor property at polymer-layered silicate nanocomposites.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;line-height:normal'><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In this work, PLA(Poly-lactic acid) is synthesized from cyclic L-Lactide with layered silicates through in-situ ring opening reaction with varying concentration of layered silicate. PLA is an attractive biomaterial and used for packaging due to high strength, high-modulus properties. Its shortcomings such as barrier property, brittleness could be enhanced by mixing with organic modified layered silicate. The polymer-layered silicate nanocomposites are characterized by x-ray diffraction, thermal gravimetric analysis, gel permeation chromatography, and optical microscopy. In this work, intercalated or exfoliated polymer layered silicate nanocomposites could be achieved. The analysis of samples shows that thermal stability is enhanced with well dispersed layered silicates in PLA and molecular weight, crystallinity, morphology depend on dispersibility and concentration.</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;line-height:normal'><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;line-height:normal'><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>