Chicago YCC Table at Local Section Meeting

Friday, April 29, 2011
6:00 - 7:00 PM · Social Hour
7:00 - 8:00 PM · Dinner
8:00 PM · General Meeting

Colletti’s Dining and Banquets
5707 North Central Avenue
Chicago, IL 60646
773-775-5144

Parking: Ample parking in large parking lot, free valet parking, or street parking available.
Also accessible by CTA (closest to busses 85 and 85A).

Come sit with other Young Chemists at the Chicago ACS Local Section April meeting.

Register for the meeting with the local section: PAY Local Section!

Dinner reservations are required and should be received in the Section Office via phone (847-391-9091), email (chicagoacs@ameritech.net), or web by noon on Wednesday, April 27.   PLEASE HONOR YOUR RESERVATIONS.  The Section must pay for all food orders.  No-shows will be billed.  Seating will be available for those who wish to attend only the meeting.

Check out the Chicago ACS page about the meeting only some details below:

Cost:  $30.00 for members of ACS and their guests, $32.00 for non-members, and $15 for students, retired, or unemployed

Dinner: Soup of the day, Garden salad with choice of dressing, Entrées (choose one): chicken marsala, broiled salmon “Oreganata”, pasta with vegetables with baked potato & baby carrots, Ice cream for dessert

Speaker:

Dr. Jiaxing Huang
Assistant Professor Department of Materials Science and Engineering Northwestern University
“Graphene Oxide as Colloidal Surfactant: Some New Insights into an Old Material”

Abstract:  Graphite oxide sheet, now named as graphene oxide (GO), is the product of chemical exfoliation of graphite that has been known for more than a century. Interest in this old material has resurged with the rapid development of graphene since 2004, as GO is considered to be a promising precursor for bulk production of graphene. We view GO as an unconventional type of soft material (i.e., polymers, membranes, colloids, liquid crystal and amphiphiles), and aim to establish the assembly-microstructure-properties relationship of these atomically thin sheets.

I will present some new insights into the synthesis, processing, characterization and solution properties of this old material. For example, GO is a known flame retardant for polymers, but it can turn into a serious fire hazard if improperly processed. GO is much more transparent than graphene and therefore even harder to see under optical microscope, but it can be readily visualized by fluorescence quenching microscopy. GO has long been described as hydrophilic due to its ionizable edge functional groups, however, it should be amphiphilic since there are also hydrophobic graphitic nano domains in its basal plane. As the “world’s thinnest bar of soap”, GO shows some intriguing size dependent solution properties, and can act as dispersing agent for insoluble materials in water. Some exciting opportunities and new materials created by this novel sheet-like surfactant, such as a photovoltaic fullerene/nanotube/graphene composite will be presented.