Research areas of interest
Our research aims to tackle Grand Challenges in clean water and energy production using innovative materials design for membranes and adsorbents coupled with a fundamental understanding of molecular transport in polymers.
Click-functionalized Facilitated Transport Membranes for CO2 capture
Facilitated Transport Membranes offer promise for energy-efficient carbon capture but often suffer from poor stability and a tradeoff between CO2 permeability and selectivity. We aim to engineer new polymer membranes that minimize energy barriers for diffusion while increasing CO2 affinity, thus driving up separation performance. Click chemistry provides a highly versatile route to access controlled molecular architectures while also installing a diverse range of functionalities that can chemically interact with CO2.
Custom-tailored adsorbents for removing toxic compounds from water
Persistent organic pollutants such as perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a major contaminant of concern for our drinking water resources. Our lab aims to leverage the versatility and modularity of “click” chemistry to design fit-for-purpose hydrogel membranes and adsorbents with functionality specifically tailored to capture and remove PFAS compounds from water. Adsorption kinetics and thermodynamics will provide a route to link molecular-level structure to PFAS separation performance.
PIMs have emerged as a promising solution for efficient gas and vapor separation membranes due to high permeabilities and selectivities imparted by their rigid backbones. However, many PIMs remain susceptible to plasticization and a loss of separation efficiency when separating complex gas/vapor mixtures. We aim to develop an in-depth understanding of the interplay between free volume, polymer dynamics, and transport properties in novel click-functionalized PIMs to enable development of advanced plasticization-resistant membranes by direct molecular design.
