Glass Chemistry at SUNY Cortland
Glasses, formed when a liquid becomes kinetically trapped in an amorphous, solid-like state upon sufficiently rapid cooling, are of significant importance in fields ranging from organic electronics to coatings to pharmaceuticals. This is generally a consequence of their amorphous structure which allow glasses to, for example, be easily dissolved for pharmaceutical applications. However, the out-of-equilibrium nature of glasses does pose challenges, in particular that a glass may change over time in seeking a state closer to equilibrium. The Wolf lab works to develop strategies to improve crystallization resistance and other origins of instability under consideration in pharmaceutical glass storage. We use methods including spin-coating, and melt-quenching to prepare glasses and compare their properties using microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, powder X-ray diffraction, and other tools.
Current Projects
Synthesis of Novel Glassformers
We are working to prepare novel glassformers, based on a well-studied class of glassformers, to probe the impact of hydrogen bonding and rotational barriers on glassy properties.
Behavior of Amorphous Pharmaceuticals in the Presence of Polymer
We are preparing indomethacin in the presences of very small amounts of polymer (PEO and PVP) to study properties including crystallization, liquid fragility, glass transition, and others.
Confinement of Amorphous Pharmaceuticals in Thin Films
We are spin-coating thin films of indomethacin to investigate the effect on confinement on crystallization.