Kevin Mutch - Microemulsion-Polymer Mixtures.

PhD, October 2005 -

Kevin completed his undergraduate degree in chemical physics at the University of Edinburgh. He is carrying out his PhD jointly supervised by Julian Eastoe and Jeroen van Duijneveldt in the area of colloid-polymer mixtures in the protein limit.

Microemulsion-Polymer Mixtures.

Colloid-polymer (CP) mixtures have been studied extensively in the colloid limit of large colloidal particles and small polymer coils, giving a size ratio q of q = 2R_g/σ <1 where σ is the colloid diameter and R_g is the polymer radius of gyration. The ‘Protein Limit’ is the case where the polymer is larger than the colloid and this case has been studied much less.

Most of the work carried out in the protein limit thus far has concerned the phase behaviour of such systems [1]. This project aims to employ reverse microemulsions as the colloidal phase and to study the structure of the mixtures using small angle neutron scattering (SANS).

This work is sponsored by EPSRC.

[1] Z. Zhang and J. S. van Duijneveldt, Langmuir, 2006, 22(1); 63-66.