Per the Reno Tahoe Photonics Bylaws, we meet the third Thursday of each month through May, then start back up in September every month.  Please put these dates on your calendar for the beginning of 2010.

Alan Fuchs, Ph.D., Chair, Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno.

Novel composite proton exchange membranes have been prepared from non–fluorinated polymer and non- and surface coated heteropoly acids (HPA) using atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Polyether sulfone (PES) was used as a polymer matrix. Phosphotungstic acid (PWA), phosphomolybdic acid (PMoA) and silicotungstic acid (SiWA) were used as HPA. It was found that the SiWA has a higher conductivity compared with PWA, at the same concentration. PES was sulfonated using chlorosulfonic acid. The highest conductivity for sulfonated PES with 60 wt.% PWA was 1.7 x 10-2 S/cm. The SiWA was added to the PES up to 30 wt.%. In order to increase the compatibility between SiWA and PES, the SiWA was surface coated. Surface coated SiWA particles can be added to the polymer matrix up to 50 wt.% to form a homogeneous membrane. This route also has the potential to increase the conductivity by sulfonation of grafted polymer backbone, and to avoid “washing out” of HPA in the fuel cell.

Alan Fuchs
Department of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557
E-mail: afuchs@unr.edu, Phone: 775-327-2227.

Education
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, Tufts University, 1996.
M.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Rochester, 1979.
B.E. Chemical Engineering, Cooper Union School of Engineering, 1977.

Professional Experience
Chair, Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno, January 2010 – Present.
Associate Professor, University of Nevada, Reno, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, July 2004 – Present.
Assistant Professor, University of Nevada, Reno, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Sept. 1998 – July 2004.
Adjunct Professor, University of Detroit Mercy, Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Assistant Director, Center of Excellence in Environmental Engineering and Science, Sept. 1995-Aug. 1998.
R&D Group Leader, Rohm and Haas Inc. (Romicon Subsidiary), Woburn, Mass., 1979-1991.

List of Five Selected Related Publications
1) Fuchs, A., Sutrisno, J., Gordaninejad, F., Caglar, M., Liu, Y., “Surface Polymerization of Iron Particles for Magnetorheological Elastomers (MREs)”, Journal of Applied Polymer Science (In-Press, February 2010).
2) Smith, Y.R., Fuchs, A., and, Meyyappan, M., “Industrial Scale Synthesis of Carbon Nanotubes via Fluidized Bed Chemical Vapor Deposition: A Senior Design Project”, Chemical Engineering Progress (In-Press, February 2010).
3) Fuchs, A., Rashid, A., Yanming Liu, Y., Barkan Kavlicoglu, Y., Huseyin, S., Gordaninejad, F., “Compressible Magnetorheological Fluids”, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, volume 115, Issue 6, March 15, 2010.
4) Fuchs, A. Zhang, Q., Gordaninejad, F., and Evrensel, C.A, “Development and Characterization of Magnetorheological Elastomers, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Vol. 105, No. 5, pp. 2497-2308, 2007.
5) Hu, B., Fuchs, A., Gordaninejad, F. and Evrensel, C., "Nanostructured and Surface Polymerized Iron Particles for Magnetorheological Fluids", International Journal of Modern Physics B (IJMPB), Vol 21, Numbers 28-29, pp. 4819-4824, November 10, 2007.

List of Five Other Publications
1) Hu, B,. Fuchs, A., Huseyin, S., Gordaninejad, F., and Evrensel, C., “Atom Transfer Radical Polymerized MR Fluids”, Polymer, volume 47, issue 22, October 18, 2006, p.7653-7663.
2) Hu, B,. Fuchs, A., Huseyin, S., Gordaninejad, F., and Evrensel, C., “Supramolecular Magnetorheological Polymer Gels”, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, volume 100, issue 3, May 5, 2006, p.2464-2479.
3) Fuchs, A., Hu, B., Gordaninejad, F., Evrensel, C., "Synthesis and Characterization of Magnetorheological Polyimide Gels", Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Vol. 98, Issue 6, Dec. 15, 2005, pp. 2402-2413.
4) Fuchs, A., Xin, M., Gordaninejad, F., Wang, X., Hitchcock, G., Gecol, H., Evrensel, C., Karol, G., “Development and Characterization of Novel Magneto-Rheological Polymeric Gels”, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Volume 92, Issue 2, 15 April 2004, p. 1176-1182.
5) Peng, S, Fuchs, A., Wirtz, R., "Polymeric Phase Change Composite for Thermal Energy Storage", Journal of Applied Polymer Science , Volume 93, Issue 3, 5 August 2004, p. 1240-1251.

Synergistic Activities
●Included undergraduate and high school students in research projects, recruited at local high schools, worked with Washoe County Gifted and Talented H.S Students.
●National AIChE, working on programming with Institute of Sustainability.
●Northern California AIChE, Sierra Section Director, organized speakers and presentations.

Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Fellows
Malcolm Wilson, M.S.ChE, Shuo Peng, Ph.D., Mei Xin, M.S.ChE, Ben Hu, Ph.D ChE, Kevin Trembath, Ph.D. ChE., Yuyi Shen, M.S.ChE, Manohar Nekkanti, M.S.ChE, Qi Zheng, M.S.ChE, Beril Kavlicoglu, M.S. ChE , Jake Elkins, M.S. ChE, Joko Sutrisno, M.S. ChE, Anu Adibathla, M.S. ChE (candidate), Irawan M.S. (candidate), Joko Sutrisno Ph.D. (candidate).

Graduate Advisors
Ph.D.: Dr. Nakho Sung, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts
M.S.: Dr. Richard Heist, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York

List of Collaborators, last 48 months
C. Evrensel, F. Gordaninejad, W. Murphy, L. Welniak, B. Kavlicoglu, Y. Liu, all of the University of Nevada, Reno.

Other Activities
Fuchs is responsible for Chemical Engineering’s, Polymer Science and Engineering Laboratory.
He has more than 90 publications in peer-reviewed journals, conference presentations and proceedings, and patents.