Advanced Polymer Materials Group

HISTORY

The Advanced Polymer Materials Group (APMG) was established in 2004 as part of the Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Materials Science from the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Romania.
The main research activity was firstly devoted to synthesis and characterization of new nanocomposites based on epoxy resins and modified silicates, like montmorillonites, etc. As the research infrastructure was strongly developed in the last few years (advanced spectroscopic techniques, advanced thermal characterization, enhanced dynamic and dynamic mechanical approach and complete mechanical characterization) the research subjects were enlarged to various nanocomposites with suitable reinforcing agents as carbon nanotubes (CNTS), polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS), halloysites, combined modified silicates with CNTS and POSS, a.s.o. New hybrid nanomaterials with enhanced properties were finally designed for various applications: aerospace industry, electronics, biomedical engineering, dental materials. A last minute approach is modeling and predicting of various nanostructures using different computational models.

Intercalated nanocomposite structure with sodium montmorillonite
modified with new epoxy-amine adducts

     More than 20 projects are ongoing concerning developing of new hybrid nanomaterials with targeting applications and more than 40 papers were published in international ISI-high rated journals since 2005.
     The Group Leader is Prof. Horia IOVU, appointed as PhD supervisor in 2003 in the field of Polymer Science and Engineering. The Group was enlarged in the last few years including at the moment six Project Team Leaders working with 11 PhD students and PostDocs.
     The Group now works in 4 main research labs: Laboratory for polymer-based nanocomposites synthesis, Laboratory for Advanced Chromatographic and Spectroscopic analysis (GPC, FTIR, FT Raman, Dispersive Raman, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy), Laboratory for thermal characterization (DSC, TGA, DETA, DMA, combined DSC-TGA-FT Raman), Laboratory for mechanical characterization (tensile, compression, impact) and collaborates with other labs in the university (SEM, TEM and XRD).