Professor, National Research Center, Egypt
President,The Egyptian Society of Polymer Science and Technology

Mahmoud Ahmed Abd El-Ghaffar (born 1950-Egypt), graduated from Ain-Shams University with B.Sc. in Chemistry 1972 and received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. at Faculty of Science Al-Azhar University of Cairo in1976 and 1979 respectively. He worked at National Research Centre (NRC), Cairo 1974-Todate. In 1989 Dr. Abd El-Ghaffar received a professorship at NRC 1989 and Head (Dean) of Chemical Industries Research Division 2000-2006. He is currently an Emeritus Professor and Head of Analysis and Consulting Unit at NRC. He granted postdoctoral fellowship to USA (UMR 1988), and another fellowship as Visiting Research Professor to RPI, NY, USA (1991-1992). Dr. Abd El-Ghaffar is an author of more than 200 peer reviewed articles and 22 patents, (13 of them were approved), Advised 50 Ph.D. and M.Sc. students, examined 130 M.Sc. and Ph.D. theses and delivered numerous lectures at national, international conferences and universities. He shared 8 Arab International conferences in Polymer Science and Technology. Abd El-Ghaffar was awarded the NRC Prize of Merit in Advanced technological Sciences 2007, State Prize of Excellency in Advanced Technological Sciences 2008 and State prize of Merit in Advanced Technological Sciences 2014.

Speech Title: Multi-functional Conductive Polymers: A journey from Construction to Applications, Ambitions and Future Prospects

Abstract: Conductive polymers have attracted much attention in view of scientific interest, simple preparation methods, environmental acceptance and thermal stability.

There is no doubt that Alan J. Heeger, Alan G. MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa did a revolution in conductive polymers, “Plastic can indeed under certain circumstances, be made to behave like a metal” – the discovery and development of conductive polymers for which they received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2000. Since then, conductive polymers have found wide applications and achievements.

Significant portion of the studies of conducting polymers has been devoted to polyanilines, poly thiophenes, polypyrroles, polyaminopyridines…etc. One of the major features of conducting polymers is the stiffness of the polymer backbone which leads to a polymer with high glass transition, softening and melting temperatures. These materials have found wide applications in organic batteries, sensors and biosensor devices, smart windows, light emitting diodes, solar cells, shielding of microwaves, semiconductors, water treatment and clarification, conductive polymer composites for tissue engineering scaffold, artificial muscles, anti-oxidants and anti-rad for rubber vulcanizates, photo-stabilizer for plastics and corrosion inhibitors in paints.

This talk will present an overview about our potentials and enhancements in this area which achieved pronounced results in the following topics:
1. Antioxidants and anti-rad for rubber vulcanizates, and photostabilizers for plastic materials.
2. Corrosion protection of steel by coatings based on some novel conducting homopolymers and copolymers.
3. Grafting of aniline moieties onto thermoplastic polymers.
4. Biosensors based conducting polymers for uric acid detection
5. Composites and nano composites based on conducting polymers for water treatment.