Publications

We, the Postdoc Professional Development Program (PD2P) leadership team, wrote these postdoc guidelines to be a starting point for communication between new postdocs, their staff mentors, and their managers. These guidelines detail expectations and responsibilities of the three parties, as well as list relevant contacts. The purpose of the Postdoc Program is to bring in talented, creative people who enrich Sandia's environment by performing innovative R&D, as well as by stimulating intellectual curiosity and learning. Postdocs are temporary employees who come to Sandia for career development and advancement reasons. In general, the postdoc term is 1 year, renewable up to five times for a total of six years. However, center practices may vary; check with your manager. At term, a postdoc may apply for a staff position at Sandia or choose to move to university, industry or another lab. It is our vision that those who leave become long-term collaborators and advocates whose relationships with Sandia have a positive effect upon our national constituency.

Abstract not provided.

Ionomers--polymers containing a small fraction of covalently bound ionic groups--have potential application as solid electrolytes in batteries. Understanding ion transport in ionomers is essential for such applications. Due to strong electrostatic interactions in these materials, the ions form aggregates, tending to slow counterion diffusion. A key question is how ionomer properties affect ionic aggregation and counterion dynamics on a molecular level. Recent experimental advances have allowed synthesis and extensive characterization of ionomers with a precise, constant spacing of charged groups, making them ideal for controlled measurement and more direct comparison with molecular simulation. We have used coarse-grained molecular dynamics to simulate such ionomers with regularly spaced charged beads. The charged beads are placed either in the polymer backbone or as pendants on the backbone. The polymers, along with the counterions, are simulated at melt densities. The ionic aggregate structure was determined as a function of the dielectric constant, spacing of the charged beads on the polymer, and the sizes of the charged beads and counterions. The pendant ion architecture can yield qualitatively different aggregate structures from those of the linear polymers. For small pendant ions, roughly spherical aggregates have been found above the glass transition temperature. The implications of these aggregates for ion diffusion will be discussed.

The microscopic Polymer Reference Interaction Site Model theory has been applied to spherical and rodlike fillers dissolved in three types of chemically heterogeneous polymer melts: alternating AB copolymer, random AB copolymers, and an equimolar blend of two homopolymers. In each case, one monomer species adsorbs more strongly on the filler mimicking a specific attraction, while all inter-monomer potentials are hard core which precludes macrophase or microphase separation. Qualitative differences in the filler potential-of-mean force are predicted relative to the homopolymer case. The adsorbed bound layer for alternating copolymers exhibits a spatial moduluation or layering effect but is otherwise similar to that of the homopolymer system. Random copolymers and the polymer blend mediate a novel strong, long-range bridging interaction between fillers at moderate to high adsorption strengths. The bridging strength is a non-monotonic function of random copolymer composition, reflecting subtle competing enthalpic and entropic considerations.