Professor Pierre Carreau, Director of the Center for Applied Research on Polymers and Composites (CREPEC) at the Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal, will present a web seminar on the ‘Rheological characterization of polymer nanocomposites’ on 12 August 2009. This live event is part of Malvern Instruments’ Rheology Focus Forum, a monthly internet forum in which researchers from industry and academia present work in novel or expanding areas of interest in rheology. Participation in the webinars is open to all.

Pierre Carreau is internationally recognised for his scientific contributions in polymer processing and rheology, an area in which he has published more than 250 scientific papers and authored or co-authored two books. Among his many distinctions he is a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada and of the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering, and has recently been appointed Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and of the Royal Society of Canada.

The webinar will focus on polymer nanocomposites (PNCs), materials composed of a polymer matrix with nanometer-size particles dispersed in it. A 2-6 wt% loading of nanoparticles (compared to 20-30 wt% in the case of conventional composites) results in increased stiffness, strength, barrier properties and heat resistance. This presentation will show how rheological methods can be used advantageously to obtain structure-property relationships of the polymer nanocomposites. Key results on the rheological characterization of PNCs will be presented and recent developments of rheological models to describe the rheology of PNCs will be reviewed and discussed.

For more information or to register for the web seminar please visit http://www.malvern.com/malvern/semmgr.nsf/webseminar?readform&month=08-2009

Source: Malvern Instruments