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Dr. Mark D. Soucek

Dr. Mark D. Soucek

Title: Interim Director, SPSPE; Sundar L. Aggarwal Endowed Professor
Dept/Program: School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering
Office: GDYR 325
Phone: 330-972-2583
Fax: 330-972-3406
Email: msoucek@uakron.edu

Biography

From 1990-1993, Dr. Soucek was a National Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellow at NASA-Langley Research Center in the area of high Temperature Polyimide, films, composites, and coatings. From 1993 through 2001, Dr. Soucek was a Professor at North Dakota State University in the Department of Polymers & Coatings focusing his research on Coatings Science and corrosion resistant coatings. From 2001, Dr. Soucek has been a Professor at the University of Akron in the Department of Polymer Engineering. He presently has >140 research papers published all in coating science. In 2009 Dr. Soucek served as President of the Cleveland Coating Society.

Research

The focus of research in the Soucek group is creating new environmentally benign coatings. A new thrust is using nanotechnology to prepare smart or stimuli response coatings. We take a multidisciplinary approach to coatings science or paint technology, where the fundamental understanding of coating science begins with chemical reactions and chemical interactions within a multiphase system. We specialize in crosslinked coating systems: 1) Autoxidatively Crosslinked; 2) High Solids; 2) Crosslinkable Latexes; 3) UV-Curable; 4) Thermosetting Powder. We investigate the crosslinking reactions using model compounds, and prepare coating formulations from the model compound studies. We study crosslinking in situ (in the formulation) via a variety of techniques including Photo-DSC, Real-time-IR, and DMTA. The degree of crosslinking and coating morphology are related to the final coatings properties including fracture toughness, hardness, abrasion resistance, and corrosion resistance.

We also specialize inorganic/organic hybrid coatings. Inorganic/organic hybrid coatings are part ceramic, and part organic poly mer with a coupling agent which links the inorganic and organic phases together. The inorganic domain can be controlled from the couple nanometers to microns. We use thermosetting organic polymers where the speed of the crosslinking reactions and catalysts control the size and structure of the inorganic domain. This is a platform for a variety of Smart coating usages. In addition to bulk morphology of the coating, the ceramer coating can self-assemble on metallic surfaces to create a passivating pre-ceramic phase which has been shown inhibit corrosion even on surfaces in which corrosion has already begun. These coatings have shown outstanding abrasion, chemical, and corrosion resistance.

Our group has recently focused on three new areas. The first project is UV-curable coatings. We have a concerted effort in the UV-arena from developing new UV-curable resins, studying the crosslinking kinetics, to evaluation of coating performance. A second new area is in silicone coatings. The third field of focus is UV-curable Powder Coatings. It is my goal to create a UV-Curable Powder Research Coatings Center where industrial and academic partnerships are formed to move the UV-curable powder coatings into new coating markets.

Publications

Google Scholar | ResearchGate | Ohio Innovation Exchange

  • Visible light cure packages for improved drying kinetics in alkyd coatings
    1 Jul 2020 Progress in Organic Coatings 144:105672
    Salata RR, Pellegrene B, Soucek MD
    10.1016/j.porgcoat.2020.105672
  • New bio based glycidal epoxides
    1 May 2020 Progress in Organic Coatings 142:105580
    Babahan I, Zheng Y, Soucek MD
    10.1016/j.porgcoat.2020.105580
  • Corrosion resistance of alkoxysilane modified bisphenol A-epoxide coatings
    1 Sep 2019 Progress in Organic Coatings 134:209-218
    Joo M, Chiu T-M, Castaneda H, Soucek MD
    10.1016/j.porgcoat.2019.05.006
  • Inhibition of acid undercutting of inorganic/organic hybrid polyurethane coatings
    1 Sep 2019 Progress in Organic Coatings 134:169-176
    He Z, Li X, Soucek MD, Castaneda H
    10.1016/j.porgcoat.2019.05.004
  • Role of graphene oxide and functionalized graphene oxide in protective hybrid coatings
    1 Sep 2019 Progress in Organic Coatings 134:197-208
    Alrashed MM, Soucek MD, Jana SC
    10.1016/j.porgcoat.2019.04.057
  • Corrosion resistance of self-stratifying coatings using fluorovinyl ether/BPA epoxide
    1 Aug 2019 Progress in Organic Coatings 133:145-153
    Joo M, Cakmak M, Soucek MD
    10.1016/j.porgcoat.2019.04.047
  • Effect of mixed sol-gel precursors on inorganic-organic polyurethane hybrid thermosets: DOE study
    1 Aug 2019 Progress in Organic Coatings 133:237-248
    He Z, Gao T, Duan D, Soucek MD
    10.1016/j.porgcoat.2019.04.023
  • Migration of fluorinated alkyd and fluorinated tung oil additives for partially self-stratifying coatings
    1 Aug 2019 Progress in Organic Coatings 133:406-417
    Salata R, Pellegrene B, Soucek M
    10.1016/j.porgcoat.2019.04.017
  • Synthesis and properties of a high solids triethoxysilane-modified alkyd coatings
    1 Aug 2019 Progress in Organic Coatings 133:340-349
    Salata RR, Pellegrene B, Soucek MD
    10.1016/j.porgcoat.2019.04.037
  • Hydrolytic stability of ternary and quaternary urethane end-capped oligoesters
    1 Jul 2019 Journal of Coatings Technology and Research 16(4):1181-1192
    Soucek MD, Ramirez-Huerta M, Zvonkina IJ, Pellegrene B
    10.1007/s11998-019-00193-7

Education

  • Ph.D. Inorganic Chemistry, Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX, 1990
  • M.S. Organic Chemistry, Illinois State Univ., Normal, IL, 1986
  • B.S. Chemistry, Eastern Illinois Univ., Charleston, IL, 1983