Dr. Richard Tarkka, Department of Chemistry, and undergraduate student Brent Newsom, recently received a $3,000 grant to study the synthesis of new dendrimers for organic/inorganic composite materials.
The objective of the project is to develop methods to synthesize materials that have the potential to be used in lightweight displays as sensors, antistatic coatings, optical switching devices and logic gates. These applications are directly related to the goals of two current NASA projects.
According to Tarkka, the results of the study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and preliminary results will be used as the foundation for a major proposal to be written to the National Sciences Foundation. In addition, the principal investigator has traveled to NASA?s Glenn Research Center. Discussion of the research and slides and/or videos of that visit will later be presented to both St. Joseph High School in Conway and the American Chemical Society Students affiliates at UCA.
The grant was provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency through the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium.