Hervé Marand

Professor

Physical; Polymer

Research Interests

Semicrystalline polymers such as polyethylene, polypropylene, poly(ethylene terephthalate) and nylon-6,6, to name a few, have become an integral part of our environment during the last half a century. Yet, we are still far from having a complete molecular level understanding of their crystallization mechanism and intrinsic structure-property correlations. Using a combination of differential scanning calorimetry, dilatometry, optical, electron and atomic force microscopies, light and X-ray scattering, infrared spectroscopy and rheological measurements, we probe their crystallization and melting behavior as well as their morphology and physical properties. Examples of current research projects are given below:

• Experimental and theoretical studies of the molar mass and temperature dependences of crystal growth for flexible chain polymers.
• Investigations of the crystallization, morphology and physical properties of ethylene/styrene and ethylene/styrene/propylene statistical copolymers.
• Crystallization and morphological studies in propylene based copolymers and blends.
• Studies of the correlations between secondary crystallization and physical aging above Tg.
• Competition between crystallization and phase separation in binary polymer mixtures.
• Crystallization of polymers in confined space.