New Research Center for the College of Engineering

The official ribbon-cutting ceremony is still months away, but thanks to the efforts of very determined project leaders and construction crews, the College of Engineering's newest building is partially open to faculty re-searchers and students as 2012 gets under way. Designated as the home of the National Center for Education and Research in Corrosion and Materials Reliability, the new building has been funded in part by the U.S. Department of Defense. It will contain laborato-ries and faculty offices supporting UA's undergraduate program in corrosion engineering, which is part of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. The building also will be home to the Timken Engineered Sur-faces Laboratory, a unique industry-university open innovation model. The build-out of the labs was funded by The Timken Company, which also fund-ed an endowed chair position in the College of Engineering.

This article was printed in the UA January 3rd, 2012 E-mail Digest. Further Information can be found at http://www.uakron.edu/edigest/index.php?id=2816

Mr. Larry Allen Retired, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Mr. Chris Arrick

Caterpillar, Inc.

Mr. Charles A. Clerecuzio Bard Holding, Inc.

Mr. Roger Cox The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company

Mr. Tom Flynn The Babcock & Wilcox Company

Mr. Robert Handelman Chemstress Consultant Company

Mr. Karl Jacob (Chair) The Dow Chemical Company

Dr. Jeffrey S. Kanel Renewable Algae Energy, LLC

Dr. Brian Kocher

Promerus LLC

Dr. Jackie Laurich OMNOVA

Dr. Tim Mallow Merck & Company, Inc.

Mr. Robert M. Shemenski RMS Consulting Inc.

Dr. W. Leigh Short Alternative Environment Strategies, LLC

Mr. Dan Spak Firestone High School

Mr. John Zuppo Emerald Performance Materials

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department The University of Akron - Spring 2012 Newsletter

Newsletter Supervisor: Gang Cheng Edited by: Miranda Mick

Departmental

Advisory Board

The office received a holiday greeting from Jason Keith. He was kind enough to submit a brief bio for this issue. Jason Keith (B.S. ChE. 1995) is currently Professor and Director and holder of the Earnest W. Deavenport, Jr. Chair in the Dave C. Swalm School of Chem-ical Engineering at Mississippi State University. Keith started his tenure as department head in August of 2011. Prior to joining Mississippi State, Keith was on the faculty at Michigan Technological University for 11 years as an Assistant Professor and Associate Professor. Keith’s research interests are in modeling of transport systems, alternative en-ergy, and improving engineering education. Jason and his wife, Salvadora, live in Starkville, MS with their 3 children: Andrew (8), Maria (5), and Isabel (3), and their ten-year old chocolate Labrador retriever, Pennant. (We would like to hear from you. Send notes and e-mails to us at main1@uakron.edu)

Professor Judit Puskas is getting international atten-

tion for her efforts to develop a safer breast implant

that can help detect and then destroy cancer cells.

The work by Professor Puskas and her research part-

ners at the university and Summa Health System is

among five projects across the globe awarded

$100,000 in seed money through the GE healthy

magination Cancer Challenge. (Information taken from Uni-

versty of Akron E-Digest)

One of our Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Advisory Board Members, Charles A.

Clerecuzio, P.E., CPIP, has been selected as the 2012 Chemical Engineer of the Year for Dela-

ware Valley by The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). Clerecuzio was

recognized at the AIChE’s CEO Night on March 29,2012 at the Union League of Philadelphia.

This honor is awarded annually in recognition of career achievements in the field of chemical

engineering by an active participant in AIChE.

UA team among GE Healthymagination Cancer Challenge recipients.

The University of Akron team consists of (from left): Kwang Su Seo,

Andrea Charif, Matthew Luebbers, Judit Puskas, Marcela Castano,

Balaka Barkakaty, Attila Gergely, Alejandra Alvarez Albarran and

Chengching K. Chiang.

Professor and her Team Develop Safer

Breast Implant with Healing Properties

College of Engineering Yearly Awards

Presented at the April 19th Banquet

The Louis A. Hill Jr. Award:

Professor George Chase

Outstanding

Administrative Staff Award: Mrs. Marcia

Main

Donald R. Burrowbridge Award:

Mallory Barker

ChemStress Award Grad: Qiuming Wang

Stephanie Lopina Memorial Endowed Scholarship:

Jacob Kohl

AIChE Award: Marcus Grimm

Outstanding Senior Awards: Gurkamal Badyal, Mallory Baker, Robert Browne, Haley Carman, Glenn

Cormack, Benjamin Garn, Marcus Grimm, Andrew Janish, Matthew Latterner, Michael Lembono, Tanya

Miracle, and Andrew Thomas.

Larry Focht: Bradford Vielhaber

ChemStress Award UG: Kyle Platt

CBE Faculty Award: Glenn Cormack

New LabNew LabNew Lab

Left to right:

First Row: Vidya Raja, Hyeon Ung Shin, Dr. Chase, Gabe Manzo,

Laila Shahreen, Goutham Viswananadam, Kristian Knudsen

Second Row: Hesam Hassan Nejad, Kitchaporn Nartetamrongsutt,

Jia Fang, Johnathan Rajala

Professor Chase and

his team moved to

the 5th floor of

ASEC earlier this

semester! During the move the

students helped to

carry boxes and

arranged the new

lab for days.

Dr. Chase invited the

students to his home

where they obtained

carpenter skills by

making shelves for

their study room.

Judy joined the office in November 2011 to be our new Administrative

Secretary. She came to us by way of Wayne College/Holmes County

Branch. Her enthusiasm and patience with our students, especially in

working with the undergrads, is appreciated. She lives in Cuyahoga

Falls with Ollie (English Bulldog) and Rosie (Pug).

Miranda Mick is our new student as-

sistant in the office. She joined the

office in October 2011. Her major is

Middle Level Education with a Sci-

ence and Math concentration and

hopes to be graduating in Spring 2014.

Ashley Rastetter is a new student assis-

tant working with Professor Evans. She

joined the office in February 2012. Her

major is Art History and hopes to be

graduating in Spring 2013.

The Akron ISPE Student Group received a $500 grant from the

Great Lakes Regional Chapter of ISPE. This funding is greatly

appreciated and will be used to assist in planned activities. In

April, the students will be traveling to Eli Lilly and Company

(Indianapolis, IN) for a tour of their Chemical Processing and

Bioprocessing R&D facilities.

The University of Akron’s Chem-E-Car Team preparing

the chemicals prior to testing. The car is power by an Al-

kaline Fuel Cell and stopped using an electrochemical cell.

From left to right, Adam Harrell, Christopher Denison,

Kylie Trumpower, Evan Arnold, and Jordan Shaffer.

The students will be competing with their car at the

AIChE regional conference on April 21, 2012 at The Univer-

George G. Chase was awarded $5,000

from the Produced Water Society

Homero Castaneda-Lopez was awarded $1,032,243

from the SENER CONACyT

Dr. Edward Evans who was awarded a $10,000 summer fellowship by the

University for faculty research. Proposal entitled “Infrared Analysis of Mixed

Oxide Advanced Materials.”

Some of the AIChE Students at work planning the

2012 regional conference.

From left to right: Andrew Janish, Marcus Grimm,

Glenn Cormack, Lauren Best, Andrew Thomas,

Robert Browne

UA researcher to manage pipeline corrosion in Mexico with $1M grant

Dr. Homero Castaneda-Lopez, assistant professor of Chemical and Biomolecu-

lar Engineering received a $1,032, 450.00 grant from the National Science and

Technology Council (CONACyT) and Department of Energy in Mexico (SENER)

for his proposal on Multiscale tools for corrosion science and Engineering ap-

plied to oil and gas pipelines over the next three years. Dr. Castaneda proposed

mathematical deterministic and probabilistic models

in different scales ranging from kilometers including the climate conditions up

to micrometers describing and quantifying the degradation and performance

mechanisms of corrosion of buried metallic pipelines. The models will build al-

gorithms and describe mechanisms to quantify corrosion phenomena and sug-

gest control actions. The new International grant create an

opportunity for International collaboration with National Sci-

ence Agencies, the highly competitive award includes the

participation of International entities targeting different stra-

tegic areas open for participation, such as advanced ma-

terials, energy, biotechnology, among other. The grant in-

cludes different review panels from academia, department

of Energy and oil and

gas industry experts. CONACyT is the National Science and

Technology council in Mexico which web link is: http://

www.conacyt.mx/en/Pages/default.aspx

Louscher honored for contributions

to e-learning corrosion website

Susan Louscher, executive director of strategic partnerships and

government programs at UA, received a Materials Performance

Magazine Readers' Choice Corrosion Innovation of the Year Award

for CorrConnect.org. The e-learning corrosion website combines

corrosion courseware, videos and interactive simulators to provide

an online resource center.

Ten Innovation Awards were presented March 12 at CORROSION 2012 — NACE International's annu-

al corrosion conference and exposition in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Our goal with this awards program is to provide a forum where anyone developing new and unique

corrosion control technology can be showcased and recognized,” says Bob Chalker, NACE Interna-

tional executive director. “We received an impressive array of entries demonstrating important ad-

vances in the industry.”

Mr. Hua Wang won the poster competition during the “Sink or Swim

2011” 54th Annual Technical Coatings Symposium (May 2011). The

title of the presentation is “Developing slow flow systems for monitor-

ing initial stages of biofilm formation on microbiologically induced cor-

rosion”. Congratulations Hua!

The research team led by Dr. Zhang Newby has been awarded a 18

months continuation funding from DOD on their microbiologically in-

fluenced corrosion (MIC) project. The project is to start in Fall of 2011.

Dr. Pamela Pasetto, a Fulbright Scholar and an assistant professor from the University of Maine (Le Mans,

France), visited us from July 15 to September 17, 2011 with the support from her Fulbright grant. She

was investigating, using our flow chamber systems, the antifouling performance of functionalized isoprene

oligomers derived from waste natural rubber (e.g. old tires).

Ms. Suchata Kirdponpattara joined the group on September 12, 2011 as a visiting scholar under the sup-

port of The Royal Golden Jubilee of the Thai Government. She will be visiting us for one year to work on

modifying the bacterial cellulose-alginate (BCA) composites for enhanced production of ethanol utilizing

yeast cells immobilized in BCA. Welcome Suchata!

The first refereed journal article by Mr. Hua Wang (first author) after he joined the group (in Fall 2009) is

to appear in Colloid. Surf. B: Biointerfaces, on October 15th, 2011. Hua is also the first author for a refer-

eed paper presented in the DOD Corrosion Conference (Palm Springs, CA, 2011). In addition, he is the

presenter and first author for several conference presentations (241st ACS meeting – March 2011, NACE –

March 2011, “Sink or Swim 2011” 54th Annual Technical Coatings Symposium – May 2011, DOD Corrosion

Conference – August 2011) during Spring/summer of 2011. Keep up the good work.

News from the research lab for Surface Modification and

Materials: Submitted by Dr. Newby

Class Notes From Project Manage-ment and Teamwork (PMT): Submit-

ted by Professor Evans

This past fall we completed our tenth Vertically Integrated Team De-

sign Project which is now implemented as a separate class called Pro-

ject Management and Teamwork. Fifteen teams of fifteen students developed prototype carbon dioxide

adsorbers based on solid sorbent technology and evaluated the cost effectiveness of this technology; the

solid sorbent technology used was developed in Professor Steven Chuang’s lab. The teams also surveyed

the public about energy perceptions and use.

We continue to emphasize leadership and structured management by bringing in experts on these topics

and having the students use project management software to help them keep track of progress and report

on resource allocation. Each team was mentored by a practicing chemical engineer. Some alumni who

helped us in the mentoring role include: Danielle Cummings (’05), John Heaton (’92), Bryan Howdyshell

(’82), Jeff Kasper (’92), and Gabe Rhoads (’05). The students really like to interact with alumni mentors

and the mentors get a chance to share their experience and advice with the students. If you would like to

get more information about this course or to participate as a team mentor (either in person or over a video

connection) please let us know.

Camacho-Alanis, F., Castaneda, H. , Zangari, G., Swami, N.S. (2011) Electrochemical impedance study of GaAs surfa-

ce charge modulation through the deprotonation of carboxylic acid monolayers. Langmiur, 27(18), 11273-11277.

Castaneda, H. (2012) Galicia, M. PROPOSED MODEL FOR QUANTIFICATION OF DISSOLUTION --AND EVOLUTION OF A

STEEL-CO2 SOLUTION INTERFACE BY THE TRANSMISSION LINE APPROACH, Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry.

Tobin, JS.; Turinske, AJ.; Stojilovic, N.; Lotus, AF.; Chase, GG. (2012) Temperature-induced changes in morphology and

structure of TiO2-Al2O3 fibers. CURRENT APPLIED PHYSICS, 12(3), 919-923.

Viswanadam, G.; Chase, GG.(2012) Contact angles of drops on curved superhydrophobic surfaces. JOURNAL OF

COLLOID AND INTERFACE SCIENCE, 367, 472-477.

PS Kulkarni, SU Patel, GG Chase.(2012) The effect of surface energy of woven drainage channels in coalescing filters.

Sep Pur Tech, 87, 54-61.

PS Kulkarni, SU Patel, GG Chase.(2012) Layered hydrophilic/hydrophobic fiber media for water-in-oil coalescence, Sep

Pur Tech, 85, 157-164.

Hassan, AM.; Vu, DT.; Bernard-Brunel, DA.; Elliott, JR.; Miller, DJ.; Lira, CT.(2012) Application of the Step Potential for

Equilibria and Dynamics (SPEAD) Method to Bioderived Esters and Acetals. INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY

RESEARCH, 51(8),3209-3214.

Ghobadi, AF.; Taghikhani, V.; Elliottt, JR.(2011) Investigation on the Solubility of SO2 and CO2 in Imidazolium-Based Ion-

ic Liquids Using NPT Monte Carlo Simulation. JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY B, 115(46), 13599-13607.

McCormick, AM.; Leipzig, ND. (2012) Neural Regenerative Strategies Incorporating Biomolecular Axon Guidance Sig-

nals. ANNALS OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, 40(3),578-597.

AE Wilkinson, AM McCormick, ND Leipzig. “Central Nervous System Tissue Engineering: Current Considerations and

Strategies.” Synthesis Lectures on Tissue Engineering. KA Athanasiou and JK Leach Eds., Morgan & Claypool Publishers.

1-120, 2011.

Zhang, B.; Lalani, R.; Cheng, F.; Liu, QS.; Liu, LY.(2011) Dual-functional electrospun poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate).

JOURNAL OF BIOMEDICAL MATERIALS RESEARCH PART A, 99A (3), 455-466.

Lalani, R.; Liu, LY.(2011) Synthesis, characterization, and electrospinning of zwitterionic poly(sulfobetaine methacry-

late). POLYMER, 52(23), 5344-5354.

Liu, QS.; Singh, A.; Lalani, R.; Liu, LY. (2012) Ultralow fouling polyacrylamide grafted on gold via surface-initiated atom-

transfer radical polymerization. BIOMACROMOLECULES, In press.

Spagnuolo, M.; Liu, LY. (2012), Fabrication and degradation of electrospun scaffolds from L-tyrosine based polyure-

thane blends for tissue engineering applications, ISRN NANOTECHNOLOGY, Article ID 627420, 1-11.

Wang, H.; Sodagari, M.; Chen, YJ.; He, X.; Newby, BMZ.; Ju, LK.(2011) Initial bacterial attachment in slow flowing sys-

tems: Effects of cell and substrate surface properties. COLLOIDS AND SURFACES B-BIOINTERFACES, 87(2), 415-422.

J. Ram, S. Purohit.;Newby BMZ.; T. Cutright.(2012) Evaluation of the natural product antifoulant, zosteric acid, for pre-

venting the attachment of quagga mussels – A preliminary study. Natural Product Research, 26(6), 580-584.

Rosenthal, EQ.; Puskas, JE.; Wesdemiotis, C.(2012) Green Polymer Chemistry: Living Dithiol Polymerization via Cyclic

Intermediates. BIOMACROMOLECULES, 13(1), 154-164.

Ouardad, S.; Kostjuk, SV.; Ganachaud, F.; Puskas, JE.; Deffieux, A.; Peruch, F.(2011) Cationation of Dimethylallyl Alcohols by B(C(6)F

(5))(3) as Models of the (Re)initiation Reaction in the Bio-Inspired Cationic Polymerization of Isoprene. JOURNAL OF POLYMER SCI-

ENCE PART A-POLYMER CHEMISTRY, 49 (23), 4948-4954.

Faculty Publications Continued

Enjoy the rest of the spring semester!

Send this newsletter to others who would be interested in seeing

more about our department.

It is always wonderful to hear from you. Please keep us up to date

with news that you may want to share for inclusion in the fall issue!

Please send your information to Marcia D. Main at

main1@uakron.edu

Puskas, JE.; Burchard, W.; Heidenreich, AJ.; Dos Santos, L.(2012) Analysis of Branched Polymers by High Resolution Multi-

detector Size Exclusion Chromatography: Separation of the Effects of Branching and Molecular Weight Distribution.

JOURNAL OF POLYMER SCIENCE PART A-POLYMER CHEMISTRY, 50(1), 70-79.

Rosenthal, EQ.; Puskas, JE.(2011) Light Scattering for the Masses Green Polymer Chemistry: Efficient Synthesis of Disulfide

Polymers and Networks. LC GC EUROPE, SI, 30-30.

Heidenreich, A.J.; Puskas, J.E.; Sappacher, M.; Ibarboure,E.; Deffieux, A.(2012) Visualization of Arborescent Architecture

of Polystyrenes Prepared by RAFT-based Inimer Polymerization Using Atomic Force Microscopy. J. Polym. Sci. Chem., 50

(6), 1238-1247.

Rosenthal, E.Q.; Puskas, J.E.; Wesdemiotis, C.(2012) Green Polymer Chemistry: New Living Dithiol Polymerization Via Cyclic

Intermediates. Biomacromolecules, 13(1), 154-164.

Puskas, J.E.; Burchard, W.; Heidenreich, A.J.; Dos Santos, L. (2012) Analysis of Branched Polymers by High Resolution Multi-

detector Size Exclusion Chromatography: Separation of the Effects of Branching and Molecular Weight Distribution. J.

Polym. Sci. Chem., 50, 70-79.

Puskas, J.E.; Luebbers, M.(2012) Breast Implants: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. WIRE Interdisciplinary Reviews, 4(2), 153

-168.

Kostjuk, S.V., Ouardad, S.; Peruch,F.; Deffieux, A.; Absalon, C.; Puskas, J.E.; Ganachaud, F.(2011) Carbocationic Polymeri-

zation of Isoprene Co-initiated by B(C6F5)3:2 An Alternative Route toward Natural Rubber Polymer Analogues? Macro-

molecules, 44, 1372-1384.

Zhao, J.; Wang, Q.; Liang, G.; Zheng, J.(2011) Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Low-Ordered Alzheimer beta-Amyloid

Oligomers from Dimer to Hexamer on Self-Assembled Monolayers. LANGMUIR, 27(24),14876-14887.

Yu, Xiang; Wang, Qiuming; Lin, Yinan; Zhao, Jun; Zhao, Chao; Zheng, Jie, "Structure, Orientation, and Surface Interaction

of Alzheimer Amyloid-ß Peptides on the Graphite", Langmuir (Accepted)

Zhao, C.; Zheng, J.(2011) Synthesis and Characterization of Poly(N-hydroxyethylacrylamide) for Long-Term Antifouling

Ability. BIOMACROMOLECULES, 12(11), 4071-4079.

X. Yu, Y. Luo, P. Dinkel, J. Zheng, G. Wei, M. Margittai, R. Nussinov, and B. Ma.(2012) Cross-seeding and conformational

selection between three- and four-repeat human tau proteins. J. Biological Chemistry, (in press)

C. Zhao, L. Li, M. Guo, and J. Zheng(2012). Functional polymer thin films designed for antifouling materials and biosensors.

Chemical Papers, (in press) (invited review).

X. Yu.; J. Zheng(2012) Cholesterol promotes the interaction of Alzheimer β-amyloid monomer with lipid bilayer. J. Molec-

ular Biology, (in press) (invited research article on a special issue: Amyloid Structure, Function, and Molecular Mecha-

nisms)

J. Yang, C. Zhao, I. Hsieh, S. Subramanian, L. Liu, G. Cheng, L. Li, S.Z.D. Cheng, and J. Zheng. (2012) Strong resistance of

PEG-based L-tyrosine polyurethanes to protein adsorption and cell adhesion. Polymer International, 61: 616.