Grant Webber

Biography

I have made significant contributions to the fields of polymeric surface coatings and atomic force microscope (AFM) colloid probe force measurements, as evidenced by my solid record of publishing in international journals of high impact factor. I pioneered the use of AFM to image in-situ the development of films of polymer micelles adsorbed from aqueous solution onto solid substrates. I was the lead author of the first report to observe in-situ morphological changes in an adsorbed film of copolymer micelles in response to a change in aqueous solution pH. A subsequent article, again as lead author, was the first-ever report of reversible stimulus-responsive behaviour of micellar thin-films where the behaviour was in reaction to a simple aqueous solution based trigger. The novelty of this work in the context of coatings for controlled surface interactions cannot be underestimated. My research methodolgy for understanding the properties of polymer adsorption is the combined application of a number of specialised scientific methods, such as atomic force microscopy, quartz crystal microbalance, electrophoretic mobility, contact angle and surface tension, and dynamic and static light scattering. This holistic approach has extracted significant new knowledge on the fundamental processes of polymer adsorption, and has enabled rigourous investigation of the link between microscopic changes in the morphology of polymer films and macroscopic properties such as wettability. I have recently started investigating ionic liquids. Ionic liquids are composed entirely of ions, and yet are liquid at room temperature, offering intriguing properties such as a wide solubility window and a high degree of molecular ordering when confined at a solid interface. Along with Dr Rob Atkin, for the Chemistry department at the University of Newcastle, we are investigating the properties of colloidal dispersions is ionic liquids, and probing important frictional and hydrodynamic forces. Previous work at the University of Melbourne focused on the use of atomic force microscopy to measure the interactions between deformable interfaces. Here I overcame the extreme technical difficulties of using an oil drop as a colloid probe, demonstrating my skills as an experimentalist. I am skilled in atomic force microscopy, both imaging and colloidal probe force measurements, quartz crystal microbalance, dynamic light scattering, and electrophoretic mobility and rheological measurements. My current H-Index is 8, I have over 230 citations, and I have three articles with 40 or more citations (ISI Web of Science, February 2010). Below is a shortlist of some of my most important publications: 1. Webber, Grant B., Wanless, Erica J., Armes, Steven P., Baines, Fiona L., Biggs, Simon, Adsorption of Amphiphilic Diblock Copolymer Micelles at the Mica/Solution Interface. Langmuir, 17, 5551-5561 (2001) 2. Webber, Grant B., Wanless, Erica J., Bütün, Vural, Armes, Steven P., Biggs, Simon, Self-Organized Monolayer Films of Stimulus-Responsive Micelles. Nano Letters, 2, 1307-1313 (2002) 3. Webber, Grant B., Wanless, Erica J., Armes, Steven P., Tang, Yiqing, Li, Yuting, Biggs, Simon, Nano-anemones: Stimulus-responsive copolymer-micelle surfaces. Advanced Materials, 16, 1794-1798 (2004) 4. Webber, Grant B., Manica, Rogerio, Edwards, Scott A., Carnie, Steven L., Stevens, Geoffrey W., Grieser, Franz, Dagastine, Raymond R., Chan, Derek Y. C., Dynamic Forces between a Moving Particle and a Deformable Drop. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 112, 567-574 (2008) 5. Smith, Jacob A., Werzer, Oliver, Webber, Grant B., Warr, Gregory G. and Atkin, Rob, Surprising particle stability and rapid sedimentation rates in an ionic liquid. Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 1, 64-68 (2010)

Research Interest