Events

Description:

PLEASE NOTE
1) Starting in January 2019, GGPF email announcements will be provided through the Constant Contact email service. No action should be required on your part due to the change.
2) The January 9 monthly dinner lecture event is at a new location (Baylands Golf Links in Palo Alto); do not go to Michael's in Mountain View out of habit.
 

"Covalent Plasticizers by Thermal Huisgen Cyclization with PVC-azide"
 Prof. Rebecca Braslau
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of California - Santa Cruz
 

Abstract
PVC is inherently a brittle, rigid material. In order to make PVC products commercially viable, PVC is traditionally mixed with small molecule plasticizers. With time, these plasticizers leach out of the PVC matrix, leaving the PVC increasingly brittle, and contaminating the environment. The most common plasticizers are phthalate esters. Phthalates are implicated as endocrine disruptors as well as leading to other adverse health effects. To replace small molecule plasticizers, covalently-bonded internal plasticizers are being developed. Attachment to PVC is carried out as a post-polymerization modification by SN2 displacement with azide, followed by thermal Huisgen cycloaddition with electron-poor alkynes bearing plasticizing moieties. The design of these internal plasticizers is explored in terms of branching and chemical composition, with the aim of maximizing plasticization while minimizing synthetic manipulations, so that internally plasticized PVC can be scaled to industrial levels.

Speaker Background
Professor Rebecca Braslau did her undergraduate studies at Reed College, and obtained her Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry with Barry Trost at UW Madison in 1989. After a two-year postdoctoral fellowship with Bernd Giese at the Institut für Organische Chemie, Universität Basel, she took up a faculty position in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California Santa Cruz in 1991, where she is now Professor of Chemistry. Her research interests range from free radical chemistry in the development of new synthetic methodologies, to nitroxide-mediated free radical polymerizations, to the development of novel materials. She has held the position of Professeur Invité at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris in November of 1997, was a visiting professor at the Dutch Polymer Institute at the Technical University of Eindhoven, the Netherlands in the Spring of 2002, and was a visiting professor at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology at the University of Melbourne, Australia in the Fall of 2008. She has been the director of two NSF Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) programs: one at U.C. Santa Cruz, and one for American undergraduates in Bangkok, Thailand.

Date:

Monday, December 17

Location:

Baylands Golf Links
1875 Embarcadero Road
Palo Alto, CA

Map

Timing:

6 PM social hour
7 PM dinner
8 PM lecture

Cost:

	Employed/postdoc	Student/unemployed/retired
Early Registration	$30	$15
Registration	$35	$20
Walk-in (not guaranteed)	$40	$25

Lecture-only is free.

 

Payment:

We accept cash or checks at the door, or online payment via credit card. No-shows are responsible for full payment of registration fee.

Registration:

Please register below or contact:

Nayan Ashar
email: nayandevyani@gmail.com
phone: 408-316-1619

Deadline for registration:

End of advanced registration: Monday, December 31, 11:59 PM

End of regular registration: Monday, January 4, 5:00 PM

Dinner Selection:

Vegetarian buffet
-or-
Non-vegetarian buffet

You should receive confirmation of your registration; if not, please contact us again.