Kyriaki Kalaitzidou

Assistant Professor

Phone:	404 385 3446
Fax:	404-894-9342
E-mail:
Office:	MaRC Building Room 438

Education

• Ph.D., Michigan State University, 2006
• M.S., Michigan Technological University, 2002
• Diploma in Chemical Engineering, Polytechnic School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, 1998

Research Areas and Descriptors

• Manufacturing and Mechanics of Materials: Multifunctional polymer nanocomposites, adaptive polymer particles, residual stress at polymer interfaces and bilayer structures, and polymer-polymer and polymer-inorganic interfacial interactions.

Background

Dr. Kalaitzidou came to Georgia Tech in November 2007. Prior to joining the Georgia Tech faculty, she was a postdoctoral research associate in the Polymer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. There she studied the friction between polymers and focused on the design and fabrication of adaptive polymer scrolls, which can alter their geometry, adsorption characteristics and flow properties upon demand. Her interest in responsive and functional particles developed during her Ph.D. work on multifunctional polymer nanocomposites at Michigan State University. The common theme in her research is the development and characterization of advanced polymer based particles or composites that have superior properties and can be used in a wide range of applications.

Research

Dr. Kalaitzidou's research focuses on developing advanced multifunctional polymeric materials and adaptive polymer particles. This involves selection of the proper starting materials, simple and safe processing conditions and fabrication methods able to scale-up, and thorough characterization of the structure and determination of the properties of the final product. In addition, the whole material selection-fabrication-characterization process is optimized in terms of cost so that it leads to affordable advanced polymer composites. Emphasis is given on understanding the processing-structure-property relationship. An example of multifunctional polymer composites is polypropylene reinforced with exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets (xGnP). xGnP can be an alternative to clays and carbon nanotubes because it combines the low cost and layered structure of clays with the superior thermal and electrical properties of carbon nanotubes resulting thus in multifunctional polymer composites that can be used in a wide range of applications. This work, sponsored by NASA, attracted the interest of automotive industry and led to a project funded by Nissan. Dr. Kyriaki's work on adaptive polymer particles includes the fabrication of polymer scrolls that can alter their geometry, flow characteristics and adsorption properties upon the stimulation of an environmental change and thus have great potential as components in smart composites and as drug delivery systems.

The future direction of Dr. Kalaitzidou's work will be divided into two main efforts: Understand/control the polymer-polymer and polymer-inorganic interfacial interactions, which is the key factor in utilizing the presence of a second phase and optimizing the performance of the final composites. These interactions become dramatically important as the reinforcement size decreases from the micro- to the nano-scale since at this length scale the fundamental physics associated with a property and the length scale of the morphology coincide and continuum mechanics or classical composite theories may not be valid anymore. The second effort is to control/tune the residual stress present at polymer interfaces and bilayer structures, which is the main reason for the failure of coatings. However, depending on the bending modulus and the thickness of the various layers the residual stress at the interface can lead to bending and not to failure of the layered structure as in the case of bimetallic strips and the adaptive polymer scrolls. The focus will be to develop adaptable polymer particles made from biocompatible and biodegradable materials that satisfy all the materials related requirements for a successful drug delivery system; and control their response by tuning the stress at the particle-solvent interface in a predesigned manner.

Polymer composites are essential part of today's world. They are used everywhere, from structural applications and automotive industry to paints, cosmetics, packaging and electronics. In addition, polymer composites are the preferred materials in bioengineering (artificial bones, tissue engineering) and biomedical research (advanced drug delivery systems) since they can be designed to be non-toxic, biocompatible and biodegradable. Graduate students will become skilled at designing, fabricating and characterizing advanced polymeric materials; and learn how to tailor the material properties to the end applications. They will gain knowledge of polymer processing methods (that is, extrusion, injection molding, casting) and characterization techniques such as thermomechanical, and rheological and surface/morphology characterization. Students will also obtain a fundamental understanding of the processing-structure-property relationship in composite materials. The knowledge and experience they will obtain during their graduate studies will allow them to thrive in the very competitive and ever changing field of advance polymeric materials and establish themselves as successful professionals in industry and in academia or consulting companies.

Distinctions

• International Quadrant Award Competition, 3rd Prize Zurich, Switzerland, for Ph.D. thesis in materials and processes related to engineering and high-performance plastics and composites, 2007
• Michigan State University Dissertation Completion Fellowship, 2005
• Marie Curie Training Fellowship as an "Early Stage" Researcher, 2004
• Gerondelis Foundation Research Grant, 2002
• Governmental Scholarship Foundation of Greece Undergraduate Scholarship, 1996-1997

Representative Publications

• K. Kalaitzidou, H. Fukushima, and L. T. Drzal. 2007. A New Compounding Method for Exfoliated Graphite-Polypropylene Nanocomposites with Enhanced Flexural Properties and Lower Percolation Threshold. Composite Science and Technology 67, 2045-2051.
• K. Kalaitzidou, H. Fukushima, and L. T. Drzal, 2007. Mechanical Properties and Morphological Characterization of Exfoliated Graphite-Polypropylene Nanocomposites. Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing 38, 1675-1682.
• K. Kalaitzidou, H. Fukushima, and L. T. Drzal. 2007. Multifunctional Polypropylene Composites Produced by Incorporation of Exfoliated Graphite Nanoplatelets. Carbon 45, 1446-1452.
• K. Kalaitzidou, H. Fukushima, P. Askeland, and L. T. Drzal. 2007. The Nucleating Effect of Exfoliated Graphite Nanoplatelets and Their Influence on the Crystal Structure and Electrical Conductivity of Polypropylene Nanocomposites. Journal of Materials Science.
K. Kalaitzidou, H. Fukushima, H. Miyagawa and L. T. Drzal. 2007. Flexural vs Tensile Modulus of Polypropylene Nanocomposites and Comparison of Experimental Data to Halpin �Tsai and Tandon-Weng Models. Polymer Engineering and Science. 47(2), 1796-1803