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"The work I do with polymers literally touches every type of synthetic material used in things you find everywhere," says Rufina Alamo, a chemical and biomedical engineering professor at the FAMU FSU College of Engineering. "From the heaviest plastics used in prosthetics to the lightest plastic bag in the produce section of your local grocery store."
"My research comes up with the recipes for how to modify polymers or how to process them to meet the specific needs of a particular product," remarks Alamo. "I work mainly with only two types of polymers, but they make up over half of the industrial-grade polymers used in the world." Alamo's current research in commercial polyolefins, polyethylenes and polypropylenes resins is being funded by a four-year grant from the National Science Foundation of $460,000 and a 3-year grant from Exxon-Mobil of $250,000 (for 2011 -2015).
The broader impact of Dr. Alamo's proposed study involves olefin-based polymers at the molecular level and will reach beyond academic boundaries. Polyethylenes and polypropylenes are an economically and technologically important class of materials comprising over half of the annual production of all synthetic polymers. Any improvement in the product, either by branching architecture, rate of processing or judicious component blending will lead to a significant impact in the US and world economy.
Research Interests
- Polymer characterization
- Polymer crystallization
- Physical properties of macromolecules
- Structure-properties relations of polymers
- Morphology of crystalline polymers
