********************************************************** **** Ph.D. Studentship AVAILABLE FROM SEPT 1998 ****** ********************************************************** THE OPTIMISATION OF MACROMOLECULE/SURFACTANT INTERACTIONS This 3 year Ph.D fully funded studentship (Course fees + Subsistence allowance) in Physical Chemistry is available from September 1998 at the University of Salford in association with Dr. Derek M. Bloor Description As a result of their unique structure, surface active agents often display various degrees of specificity with respect to their association behaviour with macromolecules. The addition of a polymer to an aqueous solution of a surfactant sometimes dramatically affects the physicochemical properties of that solution. It is these properties which render such systems amenable to commercial exploitation. For example; rheology control of hydrophobically modified polymers; gels formed by the addition of ionic surfactants to neutral polymers; combinations of proteins, natural gums and surfactants found in food products which contribute to the control of texture. Attempts to reduce empiricism by producing formulation guidelines have met with various degrees of success. This project is aimed at providing further significant improvements in these guidelines using a novel experimental approach to obtain a better understanding of the factors influencing optimisation of systems for specific applications. For each type of system, experimental parameters will be measured using a surfactant selective electrode (SE) and isothermal titration calorimetry(ITC) to enable the manipulation of the equilibrium position between the bound and aggregated surfactant to be achieved in a systematic way. The SE measurements will be carried out at Salford University whilst it is anticipated that the ITC measurements will be carried out at Unilever Research (Port Sunlight) and/or the Fritz Haber Institute (Berlin, Germany). This work will lead to enhanced flexibility in product formulation, in particular minimising the amount of experimentation required to achieve improved environmentally friendly products. For further information please contact Dr. Derek M. Bloor, University of Salford, Department of Chemistry, The Cockcroft Building, Salford M5 4WT UK D.M.Bloor@chemistry.salford.ac.uk -------------------------------------------------- Dr. Derek M. Bloor University of Salford Chemical Sciences Science Research Institute Salford M5 4WT UK Tel: 0161 295 5192 Fax: 0161 295 5111 -------------------------------------------------- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)