Joaquim José Azevedo Moura Ramos

Associate Professor


Department of Chemical Engineering
Instituto Superior Técnico
Universidade Técnica de Lisboa
Av.
Rovisco Pais
P - 1049-001 Lisboa
Portugal
phone: (+351) 21 841 92 53
fax: (+351) 21 846 44 55
email:
mouraramos@ist.utl.pt
 

Education:

· Graduation in Chemical Engineering, IST, 1971
· PhD in Chemical Sciences, Free University of Brussels, 1977

Positions:

· Assistant, IST, 1971/72 and 1977/78
· Assistant Professor, IST, 1978/79
· Associate Professor, IST, 1979 –

Status at the Centre for Molecular Physical Chemistry:

· Researcher at the Surface Spectroscopy and Molecular Dynamics in Solids Group
· Head of the research programme on slow relaxations in crystals and glasses


Reasearch Interests:

· Dielectric Properties of Polymers, Molecular Glasses and Liquid Crystals
· Local and Cooperative Relaxation Processes in Glasses and Crystals
· Molecular Motions in Pharmaceutically Important Glasses

Moura Ramos’s scientific interests are mainly centered on the study of the dielectric properties of materials (polymers, composites, liquid crystals, natural materials). The aim of his research is to obtain insight into the relaxation mechanisms operating in the materials studied in order to understand their properties and, eventually, suggest some applications.

The Dielectric Relaxation Spectroscopy in the frequency range from 10-3 to 106Hz and the technique of Thermally Stimulated Currents are the experimental instruments most extensively used in these investigations.

Another focus of scientific interest is in the field of Physical Organic Chemistry, particularly in the area generally described as "solvent effect" (the study of the influence of the medium on chemical processes). Moura Ramos’s contribution in this field has consisted of the development of a semi-empirical model to analyse the solvent effect. The model has been applied to the study of various chemical processes (reactional kinetics, conformational equilibria, electronic transitions) and it looks promising in the context of the study of physico-chemical phenomena like diffusion and cavitation in liquids.


Academic Duties (2006/2007):


· Introduction to Physical Chemistry (Biomedical Engineering Graduation)

 


Research (December 2006)

95 papers in international refereed journals;

13 papers in other refereed publications;

50 communications to scientific conferences

 

Selected Publications

J. J. Moura Ramos, J. F. Mano, B. Sauer - Some comments on the significance of the compensation effect observed in thermally stimulated current experiments; Polymer 38, 1081 (1997).

J. J. Moura Ramos - Does the solid-liquid interfacial tension depend upon equilibration with the liquid vapors?; Langmuir 13, 6607 (1997).

N. T. Correia, C. Alvarez, J. J. Moura Ramos, M. Descamps - Molecular motions in molecular glasses as studied by thermally stimulated depolarisation currents; Chemical Physics, 252, 151 (2000).

C. Alvarez, N. T. Correia, J. J. Moura Ramos, A. C. Fernandes - Glass transition relaxation and fragility in a side-chain liquid crystalline polymer: a study by TSDC and DSC; Polymer, 41, 2907 (2000).

N. T. Correia, C. Alvarez, J. J. Moura Ramos - Fragility in side-chain liquid crystalline polymers: the TSDC contribution; Polymer, 41, 8625 (2000).

N. T. Correia, C. Alvarez, J. J. Moura Ramos, M. Descamps - The glass transition relaxation in the molecular glass forming m-toluidine: a study by thermally stimulated depolarisation currents; J. Chem. Phys. 113, 3204 (2000).

C. Alvarez, J. J. Moura Ramos - The glass transition relaxation in a side-chain liquid crystalline polymer studied by modulated temperature differential scanning calorimetry; Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2, 4743 (2000).

N. T. Correia, J. J. Moura Ramos - On the cooperativity of the b -relaxation: a discussion based on dielectric relaxation and thermally stimulated depolarisation currents data; Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2, 5712 (2000).

N. T. Correia, C. Alvarez, J. J. Moura Ramos, M. Descamps - The beta-alfa branching in D-sorbitol as studied by thermally stimulated depolarisation currents (TSDC); J. Phys. Chem. B 105, 5663 (2001).

J. J. Moura Ramos, N. T. Correia - The Deborah number, relaxation phenomena and thermally stimulated currents; Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 3, 5575 (2001).

N. T. Correia, J. J. Moura Ramos, M. Descamps, G. Collins - Molecular mobility and fragility in indomethacin: a thermally stimulated depolarisation currents study; Pharm. Research 18, 1767  (2001).

M. Descamps, J. J. Moura Ramos, N. T. Correia, Ageing exploration of the energy landscape of a glass by the TSDC technique, Molecular Physics, 100, 2669-2677 (2002).

J. J. Moura Ramos, C. A. M. Afonso, L. C. Branco, The glass transition relaxation and fragility in two room temperature ionic liquids. J. Thermal Anal.Calorim., 71, 659-666 (2003).

J. J. Moura Ramos, H. P. Diogo, M. H. Godinho, C. Cruz, K. Merkel, Anomalous thermal behaviour of salicylsalicylic acid and evidence for a monotropic transition to a nematic phase. J. Phys. Chem. B, 108, 7955 – 7962 (2004). 

J. J. Moura Ramos, N. T. Correia, H. P. Diogo, Vitrification, nucleation and crystallization in phenyl-2-hidroxybenzoate (salol) studied by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermally Stimulated Depolarisation Currents (TSDC). Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 6, 793 – 798 (2004).

M. S. C. Dionísio, H. P. Diogo, J. P. S. Farinha, J. J. Moura Ramos, Rotational Mobility in a Crystal Studied by Dielectric Relaxation Spectroscopy: an Experiment for the Physical Chemistry Laboratory. J. Chem Educ., 82, 1355-1360 (2005). 

H. P. Diogo, N. T. Correia, J. J. Moura Ramos, Molecular Mobility, Phase Transitions and Phase Transformations in Crystalline orto- and meta- Carboranes. J. Phys. Chem. Solids, 66, 832-838 (2005). 

J. J. Moura Ramos, S. S. Pinto, H. P. Diogo, Molecular mobility in raffinose in the crystalline pentahydrate form and in the amorphous anhydrous form. Pharm. Res., 22, 1142-1148 (2005). 

H. P. Diogo, J. J. Moura Ramos, Are crystallisation and melting the reverse transformation of each other? J. Chem. Educ. 83, 1389-1392 (2006).

H. P. Diogo, J. J. Moura Ramos, Slow molecular mobility in 4,4’-methylenebis(N,N-diglycidylaniline) as studied by Thermally Stimulated Depolarisation Currents (TSDC). J. Molec. Liquids 129, 138-146 (2006). 

J. J. Moura Ramos, N. T. Correia, H. P. Diogo, TSDC as a tool to study slow molecular mobility in condensed complex systems. J. Non-Cryst.Solids, 352 (2006) 4753-4757. 

J. J. Moura Ramos, N. T. Correia, H. P. Diogo, M. Descamps, Dielectric study of the slow motional processes in the polymorphic states of anhydrous caffeine. J. Phys. Chem. B, 110, 8268-8273 (2006).