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Reza Foudazi from the University of Oklahoma will be presenting at this week's Physics Colloquium. The seminar will be presented in person at 4 p.m., Thursday, October 19 in Fisher 139.

ABSTRACT:

Ionic liquids (ILs) have attracted significant interest due to their unique properties such as low vapor pressure, nonflammability, and high ionic conductivity. The current challenge to use ILs for applications such as electrochemical actuators, supercapacitors, lithium-ion batteries, etc. is to immobilize them within a quasi-solid structure, in such a way that the ion transport is not compromised. One of the possible ways for immobilization of the ILs is the formation of a three-dimensional network which percolates throughout the IL and induces the solid-like behavior in the resulting material, called ion gel (or ionogel). In this work, we produce ionogels through self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers (BCPs) in ionic liquids, forming lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs). The LLCs can be used as a template and polymerized to boost the mechanical properties of the ionogel. We discuss the effect of morphology of LLC and chain density of BCP at the IL/oil interface on the segmental dynamics, ion transport, and CO2 absorption of ion gels. The results suggest that LLC templating is a promising method to develop ionogels, which provides advantages in terms of variety and processing.

BIO:

Dr. Reza Foudazi is an associate professor in the School of Sustainable Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering (SCBME) at the University of Oklahoma (OU). Before joining OU in 2021, he was a tenured associate professor at New Mexico State University (NMSU). The current research activities in Dr. Foudazi’s group are self-assembly of amphiphilic molecules, templating approach for synthesis of porous polymers, and rheology of soft matter, with the long-term goal of producing responsive multifunctional materials for sustainability and environmental applications. Dr. Foudazi has authored more than 70 publications in peer-reviewed journals and is the inventor of 7 intellectual properties on topics such as producing porous polymers, membranes for filtration, and Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) remediation. Dr. Foudazi is also a Co-founder of Filtravate, a membrane technology company for applications in the bioprocessing and biopharmaceutical industries. He received the Early Career Award from the NMSU Research Council in 2016, the Polymer Processing Society Early Career Award in 2019, the ACS PMSE Young Investigator Award in 2020, and the NMSU Intellectual Property Award in 2021. He was also recognized in the “Mentoring Excellence” program of NMSU in 2016.