RESEARCH
Research Overview
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We are a polymer physics research group located at USM's Polymer Science and Engineering department. My research program establishes a unified paradigm for the data-driven discovery of soft materials whose function arises from their mesoscale morphology, spanning mesoscale-ordered polymers as polymer electrolytes, deformable and degradable electronics, and large area printed organic electronic devices for energy harvesting. My laboratory integrates high-throughput experimentation, chemical informatics, active-learning algorithms, and in operando scattering and spectroscopy techniques to build advanced autonomous platform capable of predicting and controlling polymer structure–property relationships. Our application focus includes battery electrolytes, deformable and bioresorbable electronic devices and sensors, and solar cells for energy harvesting.
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Our group regularly use various large user facilities across the United States supported by DOE, as well as in-house X-ray beam line by Xenocs.
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Synchrotrons
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Advanced Light Source (ALS), Berkeley, CA.
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Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne, IL.
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National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS. II), Upton, NY.
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Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL), Menlo Park, CA.
Neutron sources
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Spallation Neutron Source(SNS), Oak Ridge, TN.
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NIST Center for Neutron Research, Gaithersburg, MD.
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Previous Ph.D student thesis defense.
Dr. Song Zhang " Structural Origin Of Thermal, Mechanical Properties and Morphological Behaviors Of Semiconducting Polymers"
Link to thesis defense video, click here.
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Dr. Daniel Weller "Copolymer Microphase Separation, Properties, And applications"
Link to thesis defense video, click here.
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Dr. Luke Galuska "Thermomechanics of Semiconducting Polymers and Their Morphological Phenomena"
Link to thesis defense video, click here.
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Dr. Zhiqiang Cao "Understanding the Structure and Dynamics of Conjugated Polymers by Deuteration and Neutron Scattering"
Link to thesis defense video, click here.
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Dr. Nathaniel Prine "Using AFM-IR to Study Nanoscopic Phase Behavior of Polymer Blends and Photovoltaic Bulk Heterojunctions"
Link to thesis defense video, click here.
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Dr. Guorong Ma "Understanding Chain Dynamics and Conformation Of Conjugated Polymers In Films and Solutions"
Link to thesis defense video, click here.
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Dr. Sonia Stanciu "Enhancing Light Upconversion By Singlet-Sink-Type Triplet-Triplet Annihilation In Polymer Glasses"
Link to thesis defense video, click here.
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Dr. Yunfei Wang "Development and Structural Origin Of Stretchable Semiconducting Polymers and Composites"
Link to thesis defense video, click here.
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TOPIC 1: Autonomous Discovery of New Phase for Polymeric Materials
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TOPIC 2: Functional Soft Electronics
Topic 3: Data-Driven Engineering for New Electronically Functional Polymers
Current Collaborators
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Derya Baran ( King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) - Doped polymer and thermoelectric
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Zhenan Bao (Stanford University) - Conjugated polymer synthesis and characterization
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Yu-Cheng Chiu (National Taiwan University of Science and Technology) - Device fabrication
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Lei Fang (Texas A&M University) - Conjugated polymer synthesis and characterization
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Christine Luscombe (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology) - Conjugated polymer synthesis
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Boran Ma (University of Southern Mississippi) - Data science
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Jianguo Mei (Purdue University) - Conjugated polymer synthesis and characterization
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Adam Moule ( University of California at Davis) - Inelastic scattering and DFT modeling
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Ting Lei (Peking University) - Conjugated polymer synthesis and characterization
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Derek Patton ( University of Southern Mississippi) - Synthesis of polymers
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Chad Risko (University of Kentucky) - Molecular dynamics simulation of functional polymers
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Simon Rondeau-Gagné (University of Windsor) - Conjugated polymer synthesis and characterization
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Bob Schroeder (University College London) - Conjugated polymer synthesis and characterization
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Barry Thompson (University of Southern California) - Conjugated polymer synthesis and processing
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Wenjie Xia (Iowa State University) - Simulation of glass transition
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Jie Xu ( Argonne National Laboratory) - High throughput experiment
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Wei You (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) - Stable OPV materials and devices​​
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Past Collaborators (within last 4 years)
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Jason Azoulay (University of Southern Mississippi) - Conjugated polymer synthesis and characterization
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Qilin Dai (Jackson State University) - Perovskite solar cell
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Kunlun Hong (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) - Deuterated material synthesis and characterization
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Robson Storey (University of Southern Mississippi) - Elastomers synthesis and characterization
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Carlos Lopez-Barron (Exxon Mobile) - Elastomeric Material characterization
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Dongshan Zhou (Nanjing University) - Glass transition
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Sergei Nazarenko (University of Southern Mississippi) - Membrane transportation
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Sarah Morgan (University of Southern Mississippi) - Conjugated polymer characterization
Current Supports
DOE BES
Neutron scattering program
Chemical and processing program
EPSOCR program
DOE user facility
NSF
CHE- MSN program
DMR- POL program
OIA program
MRI program
ERDC
Previous Supports
Exxon-Mobil
ORAU
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Qatar QNRF
3M Inc
ONR