Emulsions stabilized by solid particles (e.g., Pickering emulsions) are attractive platforms for creating composite structures, including capsules with liquid core. This presentation will address the use of non-aqueous Pickering emulsions for the encapsulation of compositionally sensitive liquids, including salt hydrate phase change materials (PCMs) and ionic liquids (ILs). Hydrophobized graphene oxide nanosheets are dispersible in an oil which becomes the continuous phase, and upon agitation of this dispersion with an immiscible liquid, emulsions are formed in which the modified particles reside at the fluid-fluid interface, imparting stabilization.
This presentation will address the use of these emulsions for encapsulation of PCM or IL by polymer formation at the interface, providing a core-shell structure, as well as the application of these composite capsules in thermal energy management (e.g., PCM core) and carbon capture (e.g., IL core).
Emily Pentzer,
Texas A&M University
Emily Pentzer is Professor of chemistry materials science and engineering, and chemical engineering at Texas A&M University, where she also serves as Associate Dean of Research for the College of Arts and Sciences. She received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Butler University (2005) and Ph.D. in chemistry from Northwestern University (2010), where her thesis focused on preparing and polymerizing unsaturated lactones and lactams. She then worked with Professor Todd Emrick in the Polymer Science and Engineering Department at UMass Amherst where she focused on the synthesis and assembly of electronically active materials for organic photovoltaics. In 2013, Dr. Pentzer started her independent career as an assistant professor of chemistry at Case Western Reserve University and she moved to Texas A&M in 2019.
The Pentzer Lab’s research centers on developing new polymeric materials and assemblies as a route to understand structure-property-application relationships and access functions not possible with current state-of-the-art systems. Her group works on the encapsulation of “active” liquids and gases, designing and synthesizing new polymer chemistries, and developing feedstocks for additive manufacturing to produce multifunctional materials, and these materials have applications in thermal energy management, electrochemical energy storage, and carbon capture.
Dr. Pentzer regularly participates in events aimed at professional development of students and post-docs and facilitating their transition to vibrant STEM careers. She has received several awards including the NSF CAREER award (2016), PMSE Young Investigator Award (2017), CWRU Faculty Diversity Excellence Award (2019), ACS WCC Rising Star Award (2021), and was named a Texas A&M Presidential Impact Fellow (2021) and finalist for the Blavatnik Award in physical sciences and engineering (2022). She served as an Associate Editor for Polymer Chemistry from 2015-2023 and served as Alternate Councilor for the Polymer Division (POLY) of the American Chemical Society from 2020-2022. She currently serves as the inaugural Editor in Chief of RSC Applied Polymers (2023-present) and member of the third cohort of the New Voices program of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (2024-2026).