Research Areas

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The field of organic electronics has generated numerous soft-matter technologies for energy capture/storage, bio-sensing, and IoT applications where the polymers incorporated into the device impart desirable flexible/stretchable mechanical properties. Since subjecting a device to repeated mechanical deformation invariably results in device failure due to crack formation, we are interested in developing intrinsically self-healing polymers where damage sustained from mechanical deformation can be mitigated or fully reversed.

Advancements in the sustainable synthesis of polymers have primarily focused on the use of sustainably sourced/green solvents, bio-renewable monomer feed-stocks, and highly abundant, low-cost catalysts. Mechanochemical polymerization is an emerging methodology employing solvent-free conditions, which significantly negates the environmental and human-health hazards associated with conventional polymerization methodologies. We are interested in further advancing this frontier by developing conditions that allow for the broad-scope precision synthesis of polymers with varied composition/nanostructure, advanced topologies, and diverse functionalities. 

The judicious structural engineering and functionalization of conjugated polymers has allowed for highly tunable optoelectronic properties. More recently, functionalities that allow for external stimuli, e.g. photoswitching and mechanochromism, have led to the development of new technologies and applications for conjugated polymers. Our group is interested in designing new stimuli responsive polymers and incorporating them into organic electronic device applications so that new platforms for optical, thermal, and strain sensing can be realized.