Steve Carter has great experience of polymer synthesis, which is why he was so valuable to us for our work on switchable adhesion. He arrived in April 2008 and his job was to demonstrate switchable adhesion in different systems and to show some control over the nature of the switch. He was funded for the most part by the Yorkshire Universities Proof of Commercial Concept Fund, and later by METRC (Molecular Engineering Translational Research Centre, which is something of a mouthful) in collaboration with CYTEC specialty chemicals. Sadly for us, Steve left at the end of September 2009, but BP were lucky enough to benefit from his skills.
Publications
A. M. AL-Baradi, S. Rimmer, S. R. Carter, J. P. de Silva, S. M. King, M. Maccarini, B. Farago, L. Noirez, and M. Geoghegan "Temperature-dependent structure and dynamics of highly-branched poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) in aqueous solution" Soft Matter 14 1482-91 (2018)
M. Raftari, Z. J. Zhang, S. R. Carter, G. J. Leggett, and M. Geoghegan "Salt dependence of the tribological properties of a surface-grafted weak polycation in aqueous solution" Tribol. Lett. 66 11 (2018)
M. Raftari, Z. J. Zhang, S. R. Carter, G. J. Leggett, and M. Geoghegan "Nanoscale contact mechanics between two grafted polyelectrolyte surfaces" Macromolecules 48 6272-9 (2015)
M. Raftari, Z. Zhang, S. R. Carter, G. J. Leggett, and M. Geoghegan "Frictional properties of a polycationic brush" Soft Matter 10 2759-66 (2014)