We are an organic materials research laboratory at the University of Tennessee Knoxville aiming to use synthetic organic chemistry and polymer chemistry tools to create (well-defined) polymeric systems for answering fundamental questions in polymer science, elucidating their structure-property/behavior relationships, and demonstrating their potential applications. Our research interests include: (i) macromolecular brush materials (polymer brushes on flat substrates, polymer brush-grafted particles/hairy particles, and bottlebrush polymers); (ii) stimuli-responsive polymers, (iii) chiral ferroelectric liquid crystalline polymers, and (iv) polymer adsorbents for removal of toxic persistent oxyanions from water. Our work involves organic synthesis, polymer science, materials chemistry, surface and colloidal chemistry, and environmental chemistry.
