Dynamics of Composite Materials

The book presents recent developments in the field of composites, investigated by Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy (BDS) and sheds a special focus on nanocomposites. This volume compares the results obtained by BDS with data from other methods like hyphenated calorimetry, dynamical-mechanical spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy and neutron scattering. The addressed systems range from all kinds of model systems, such as polymers filled with spherical silica particles, advanced materials such as polymers with molecular stickers or hyperbranched polymer-based matrices to industrially significant systems, like epoxy-based materials. The book offers an excellent insight to a valuable application of dielectric spectroscopy and it is a helpful guide for every scientist who wants to study dynamics in composite materials.

• Polymer-Based Nanocomposites
• Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy
• Molecular Dynamics in Polymer Systems
• Interfaces in Composite Systems
• Physical Chemistry of Composites

• Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), Berlin, Germany

  Andreas Schönhals, Paulina Szymoniak

Andreas Schönhals received his Diploma degree in Physics (1981), and the degree Dr. rer. nat. from the Technical University Leuna-Merseburg (1984). After that, he moved to the Central Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the former GDR (Berlin) and, in 1993, to the Institute of Applied Chemistry Berlin-Adlershof. Between 1991 and 1995, he conducted several research stays at the Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz in the group of E. W. Fischer. In 1996, Andreas Schönhals did his habilitation at Technical University of Berlin. He joined the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) in 1997. Together with his group, he conducts research on a wide variety of Soft Matter systems ranging from low molecular weight materials, liquid crystals to polymers, polymer-based nanocomposites, and polymers in nanometre confinement and in ultrathin films. In 2010, he was awarded a position as an associate professor at the chemistry department of the Technische Universität Berlin. Moreover, he was an invited as guest professor at the University Lyon I “Claude Bernard” (France) and at the Lodz University of Technology (Poland). Together with F. Kremer, he edited the book Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy (Springer, 2003) which is one of the standard textbooks in the field.

Paulina Szymoniak received her PhD degree (Dr. rer. nat.) in the field of Soft Matter Physics from the Technische Universität Berlin in 2020. She earned her joint Master of Science degree in Polymer Science from Humboldt Universität Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Potsdam. Since 2016 she works at the Bundestanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) in Germany in the field of polymer nanocomposites and polymers in nanoscale confinement. Her areas of expertise include dielectric spectroscopy and advanced calorimetry.

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