Dr. Al-Muallem's research includes synthesis and characterization of water-soluble cationic, anionic, zwitterionic, or ampholytic polymers containing pH-responsive functionalities (e.g, amines, carboxylate, sulfonate). Water-soluble polymers found applications in biotechnology, controlled delivery of active agents, protection of the environment, potable and wastewater treatment, paint thickening, petroleum recovery, and other applications.
Dr. Al-Muallem's work involves synthesizing polymeric materials with multiple adsorption sites such as polyisoxazoldines that bond well to the metals and provide good coverage. They showed effective corrosion inhibition.
Dr. Al-Muallem works on synthesizing green Polymeric antiscalants including polyaspartate, and compounds with residues of aspartic acid or glutamic acid.
