Current Position: Vice President, Mizuho

B.S.E. Thesis Research:

Isotactic polypropylene (iPP) is a semi-crystalline polymer, indicating that its microstructure is composed of three different classifications of polymer chains: crystalline regions, amorphous regions, and tie molecules. Crystalline regions of the microstructure are ordered and solid-like, while amorphous regions are random and fluid-like. Connecting these two regions are tie molecules, which are polymer chains that span both crystalline and amorphous regions, and have shown to have strong links to the mechanical properties of the polymer, particularly ductility. Using the Huang-Brown model, it is possible to estimate the fraction of tie molecules within a polymer sample. A long-term goal of the Register lab is to accurately predict ductility in a polymer sample using internal characteristics, like tie molecules concentration or density and other microstructural parameters, as that is not possible through current literature. The research in this thesis aims to find the brittle-to-ductile transition across varying molecular weights and cooling histories in iPP. Another aim of this research is to identify the relationship between the natural draw ratio (NDR) and the molecular weight of iPP, and compare it to that found in High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) in research produced by Alex Lungren, a former member of the Register Lab.