Researcher Spotlight


Dr. Gerard Caneba

Professor, Chemical Engineering


Gerard Caneba The free-radical precipitation-polymerization (FRRPP) process is a polymerization method that was produced by Dr. Caneba in the 1990s, and it involves the inherent control over chain reaction in polymerization operations. Conceptual underpinnings of the FRRPP process, such as reactive spinodal decomposition in microscale has already been developed in the first FRRPP monograph, and mesoscale-macroscale computer simulation of flat temperature profiles of FRRPP systems have also been discovered and presented in the second FRRPP monograph.

Dr. Caneba's recent research has shown the occurrence of flat composition profiles in FRRPP systems. These discoveries of flat temperature and composition profiles confirm the inherent reaction and dimensional control of products from this method. This combined phenomenon was used for micro-patterning and for entrapment of reactive radical sites, for the formation of block co-polymers that can be used as intermediates, surfactants, coatings, coupling agents, foams, and hydrogels. FRRPP-based materials and its mechanism have also been proposed to be relevant in energy and environmentally responsible applications.

Dr. Caneba and his group have therefore embarked on the use of the Superior's capabilities, in order to combine microscale spinodal decomposition with the mesoscopic-macroscopic computer simulation efforts that resulted in flat temperature and composition profiles for the FRRPP process. Anticipated results of this computational effort along with new experimental results will be assembled into the third FRRPP monograph.