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The development of molecular-based models for the prediction of thermophysical
properties and phase equilibria of fluid mixtures containing chain molecules
is a subject of enormous importance to the chemical, petroleum, and materials
processing industries. Thermodynamic models are powerful tools for process
and materials design, and are useful for the prediction and correlation
of volumetric properties and phase equilibria of fluid mixtures. The long-range
objectives of this research program are (i) to advance the equation of
state theory of dense chain fluid mixtures, (ii) to obtain fundamental
understanding of the effects of molecular interactions on the thermodynamic
properties and microscopic correlations of chain fluids and (iii) to develop
quantitative tools for the prediction and correlation of volumetric and
phase equilibria properties of chain fluid mixtures.
Another research focus is environmental thermodynamics. Our research
effort aims at obtaining theoretical understanding of the behavior of
contaminants in aqueous solutions and in soils. We are currently developing
thermodynamic models for the adsorption of contaminants in vapor/soil
and liquid/soil systems. These theoretical models are used to correlate
and predict the sorption of contaminants in the vapor phase onto soils.
Molecular simulations are performed for selected hydrocarbons-water mixture
to examine the effective interactions between hydrophobic molecules in
an aqueous environment and their interactions with charged ionic groups
in soils. These studies will eventually provide fundamental insights on
molecular interactions in aqueous based systems.
The properties of interfacial films containing surface active molecules
formed between two fluids play an important role in many interfacial processes
such as high speed coating of photographic films, emulsification and foaming.
Properties of these films can be modified in definite ways by the application
of properly selected surfactants. Because most interfacial processes take
place under dynamic conditions, it is insufficient to only examine the
equilibrium properties of interfacial films. Our research aims at acquiring
a fundamental understanding of surface relaxations and dynamic rheological
properties of interfaces. Special emphasis are placed upon investigating
the adsorption/desorption dynamics of surfactants, polymers and biological
macromolecules at air/liquid and liquid/liquid interfaces, the interactions
between polymers, proteins and small molecular surfactants on the dynamic
properties of fluid interfaces, and the relationship between interfacial
properties and emulsion and foam stabilities.
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Recent Publications
Jiang, Q., and Chiew, Y. C. (1993). A Simple Test for Diffusion-Controlled
Adsorption at Air/Water Interface,
Langmuir 9: 273 - 277
Banaszak, M., Chiew, Y. C., OÕLenick, R., and Radosz, M. (1994). Thermodynamic
Perturbation Theory . Lennard-Jones Chains,
J. Chem. Phys, 100: 3803 - 3807
Chen, S.-J., Chiew, Y. C. Gardecki, J. A., Nilsen, S., and Radosz, M.
(1994).
P-V-T Properties of Alternating Poly(Ethylene-Propylene) Liquids,
Journal of Polymer Science: Part B: Polymer Physics 32: 1791 - 1798
Jiang, Q., O'Lenick, C. J., Valentini, J. E., and Chiew, Y. C. (1995).
Dynamic Penetration of Surfactants into an Insoluble Monolayer,
Ó in press, Langmuir 11: 1138 - 1144 .
Chiew, Y. C., Kuehner, D., Blanch, H. W., and Prausnitz, J. M. (1995).
Molecular Thermodynamics of Salt-Induced Protein Precipitation,
AIChE Journal, in press.
O'Lenick, R. and Chiew, Y. C. (1995). Variational Theory for Lennard-Jones
Chains. Molecular Physics, in press.
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