Achievement

Blake Branson, who recently defended his Ph.D. dissertation concerning ultra dispersed nano-diamond (UDD), entered the IGERT program in Fall 2005 with a Mechanical Engineering degree from Baylor University. His Ph.D. research moved heavily into the Chemistry direction and at his dissertation defense, he spoke more like a chemist than a mechanical engineer (his co-advisors were Prof. Davidson, Electrical Engineering and Prof. Lukehart, Chemistry). The research developed a method to separate the UDD aggregates into primary nanodiamond (ND) nanoparticles where de-aggregation processing techniques coupled with surface functionalization strategies to disperse ND into fluids and polymeric materials. Nanofluids containing ND exhibit excellent nanoparticle stability and enhanced thermal conductivity. Functionalized ND was also incorporated into both thermoplastic and thermosetting polymer matrices for enhancement of mechanical properties.