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Institute of Energy Process Engineering and Fuel Technology
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Jana Zimmermann's Ph.D. Thesis

Jana Zimmermann completed her doctoral degree with honors on July 12, 2024

As part of her doctoral dissertation, Dr. Jana Zimmermann researched the topic “Thermodynamic-mechanical modeling of gas solubility in semicrystalline polymers, taking temperature-dependent morphological properties into account.”

In her thesis, Dr. Zimmermann developed a new thermodynamic-mechanical model that, for the first time, accounts for temperature-dependent polymer morphology in gas solubility calculations and precisely predicts this property in semicrystalline polymers. The model was applied to various types of polyethylene (LLDPE, MDPE, HDPE) and their blends with ethylene and CO2. For LLDPE / HDPE and CO₂ blends, this study investigated solubility from the melt through to the semicrystalline region and, for the first time, experimentally established a relationship between gas solubility, morphology, and molecular architecture—expressed by the bivariate distribution of molecular weight and degree of branching.

Congratulations, Jana!