Engineered Ceramic-Organic Interfaces: Properties and ApplicationsMark De Guire, Case Western Reserve University, DMR-0203655

Nanotechnology towards longer-lasting paints

Conventionally treated commercial titania (left) leaves some particles uncoated. This project achieved a dense, continuous barrier layer a few nanometers thin (right; arrows). Early results on the lifetime and coverage of paint containing such pigment have been encouraging.

Housepaints deteriorate when UV light hits the titania pigment, breaking down the binder that holds the paint together. Pigment makers apply coatings to the titania as a barrier against this breakdown.

Education & Outreach:

International experiences for graduate students are a valuable feature of this program. Collaborations in Germany and Israel have been augmented by new interactions with Japanese researchers.

One of the Ph.D students supported by this grant, Jing-Jong Shyue, spent a month as a guest researcher at Nagoya University, Japan, with the groups of Profs. Kunihito Koumoto and Yoshitake Masuda.* Results from their joint work have been published.†

M.S. student Jason Riggleman spent nine days in Nagoya in March 2005.* He also spent four weeks with Prof. Fritz Aldinger and Dr. Joachim Bill at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart, Germany in August.

The project has supported the research of five graduate students, an undergraduate student and a high school student.

Engineered Ceramic-Organic Interfaces: Properties and ApplicationsMark De Guire, Case Western Reserve University, DMR-0203655

*) With support from a Nature COE Open Cluster grant from the Japanese government to Nagoya University

†) Langmuir 20 8693-8698 (2004).

Above: Ph.D. student Jing-Jong Shyue (center) with Prof. Masuda (far right) and colleagues in Japan.