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Boguslaw Kruczek, PhD.
Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering
B.Sc.Eng: University of New Brunswick (1993)
Ph.D: University of Ottawa (1998)
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Biography
Dr. Kruczek was born in Poland where he started his undergraduate
studies in the Department of Chemistry at the Polytechnical Institute
of Krakow. After completion of three years of the undergraduate
program, he emigrated from Poland. He lived in Greece for two years
before coming to Canada in 1989. He resumed his studies at the
University of New Brunswick in Fredericton in 1990 and received a
B.Sc.Eng. in Chemical Engineering in 1993. He graduated with a
Lieutenant Governor's Silver Medal for the highest overall standing in
the Faculty of Engineering. On completion of his undergraduate degree,
he received an NSERC PGS A award and moved to Ottawa to complete for
his graduate studies at the University of Ottawa. He bypassed a Masters
in 1995 and received an NSERC PGS B award for doctoral studies. He
completed a Ph.D. in 1998 under the supervision of Dr. T. Matsuura and
joined the University of Ottawa as an Assistant Professor in January
1999.
Dr. Kruczek is a member of the Industrial Membrane Research
Institute and the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineers. He has
published 4 papers to date stemming from his Ph.D. research, with 5
others still pending, and has presented his work at several major
conferences. Dr. Kruczek teaches third year courses in Heat Transfer
and Unit Operation Laboratory and the fourth year course in Mass
Transfer Operations.
Ph.D. Research
Dr. Kruczek has been involved in membrane science and technology
research. His Ph.D. work involved development and characterization of
polyphenylene oxide-based membranes for gas separation. Dr. Kruczek has
demonstrated that tailoring the chemical structure of polymers allows
to improve the selectivity and permeability of gas separation membranes
simultaneously. Consequently, he has prepared polymeric membranes with
separation properties above so called "upper bound line" for polymers.
Dr. Kruczek also has challenged the common belief in the membrane
community that the properties of homogeneous polymeric films are
entirely determined by the polymer chemistry. He has demonstrated that
the surface morphology and the performance of homogeneous membranes are
strongly influenced by the membrane preparation conditions. In his
studies on surface morphology of the membranes, Dr. Kruczek has
utilized an atomic force microscope, a novel analytical tool, which
allows to obtain real time 3-dimensional images of the surfaces at a
nanometer resolution.
Current Research Interests
Dr. Kruczek's current research continues to be related to the field
of membrane science and technology. In particular, he is interested in
the design of high productivity thin film composite (TFC) membranes for
gas separation by establishing firm criteria for the choice of coating
solutions and porous substrate membranes. The existing technology to
develop TFC membranes is based largely on a trial and error method,
which is time consuming and economically ineffective. The potential
results would offer technological and economic advantages over the
existing technology. This research project is conducted in
collaboration with Dr. T. Matsuura.
Another research project of Dr. Kruczek involves the study of
physical aging of ultrathin polymeric films. Gas separation in TFC
membranes takes place in a dense ultrathin polymeric layer. er time,
the properties of ultrathin polymeric deteriorate, is attributed to the
physical aging of polymers. The phenomenon of physical aging, is not
well understood and requires a significant research effort. The
fundamental information on tÐuhe physical aging of polymers will
contribute to the better predictability and the better control of the
performance of TFC membranes.
Recent Publications and Presentations
- Kruczek, B. and T. Matsuura, "Effect of metal substitution of
high
molecular weight sulfonated polyphenylene oxide membranes on their gas
separation performance" accepted by J. Membrane Sci. on Aug.
23, 1999.
- Kruczek, B. and T. Matsuura, "Development and Characterisation
of Homogeneous Membranes made from High Molecular weight Sulfonated
Polyphenylene Oxide", J. Membrane Sci. 146, (1998)
263-275.
- Kruczek, B. and T. Matsuura, "Improvement of Gas Transport
Properties of Sulfonated Polyphenylene (SPPO) by Introduction of a
Metal Cation into the Polymer", presented at the 10th Annual Meeting of
the North American Membrane Society, Cleveland OH, May 16 - 18, 1998.
- Kruczek B. and T. Matsuura, "Effect of Casting Temperature on
the Morphology and Performance of Dense SPPO Membranes", Poster
Presentation, Proceedings of the EUROMEMBRANE`97 Symposium, University
of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, June 23 - 27, 1997.
- Khulbe, K. C., G. Chowdhury, B. Kruczek, R. Vujosevic, T.
Matsuura and G. Lamarche "Characterisation of the PPO Dense Membranes
Prepared at Different Temperatures by ESR, Atomic Force Microscope and
Gas Permeation", J. Membrane Sci., 126, (1997) 115-122.
- Khulbe, K. C., B. Kruczek, G. Chowdhury, S. Gagne, T. Matsuura
and S. P. Verma, "Surface Morphology of Characterisation of Membranes
Prepared from Polyphenylene Oxide by Raman Scattering and Atomic Force
Microscopy", J. Membrane Sci., 111, (1996) 57-70.
- Kruczek B., R. Vujosevic, G. Chowdhury and T. Matsuura,
"Development and Characterisation of Gas Separation Membranes Prepared
from Sulfonated Polyphenylene Oxide", presented at the 8th Annual
Meeting of the North American Membrane Society, Ottawa, Ontario, May 18
-22, 1996.
- Khulbe, K. C., B. Kruczek, G. Chowdhury, S. Gagne and T.
Matsuura, "Surface Morphology of Homogeneous and Asymmetric Membranes
Made from Polyphenylene Oxide by Tapping Mode Atomic Force Microscope",
J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 59, (1996) 1151-1158.
- Kruczek, B., K. C. Khulbe, G. Chowdhury, S. Gagne and T.
Matsuura, "A Study on the Surface Morphology of Asymmetric and Dense
Membranes by Atomic Force Microscopy", presented on 45th Canadian
Society of Chemical Engineering Conference, Quebec City, Quebec,
October 16 - 18, 1995.
Course Web Pages
CHG 2314
- Heat Transfer
CHG
8194
-Membrane Gas Separation
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