REACT Fellows Emily Lin and Neha Manohar (right) working on the experimental setup at ILL on June 23, 2018.
Neha Manohar, with the support of GIANT mentors at Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) Philipp Gutfreund and Giovanna Fragneto, applied for and was awarded time to collect neutron reflectivity data at ILL. These experiments will refine work that builds on Neha’s research during her 2017 summer at GIANT and at Penn for her dissertation and on work conducted by one of her Penn lab mates, REACT Fellow David Ring, who worked at ILL as part of the first REACT cohort at GIANT in 2016 (see his video here). The experiments in June 2018 included the collaboration of REACT Fellow Emily Lin, who is participating in this year’s GIANT International Internship Programme. The neutron scattering data play a key role in determining important dynamics that occur during the formation of polymer nanocomposite materials. These materials have many useful optical, electronic, thermal and mechanical properties, including ones with applicability to water filtration.