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Polymer Program Title

Gregory A. Sotzing

Professor of Chemistry & Polymer Program Director

Education

Ph.D. University of Florida
B.S. Mary Washington College

 

Contact Information

Phone: (860) 486-4619
Email: sotzing@mail.ims.uconn.edu
Website: http://www.ims.uconn.edu/~sotzing_grp/

Research Interests

Heterocyclic Synthesis:

Primarily we work on new ways to close five membered heterocyclic aromatics such as thiophene, furan, and pyrrole and ways to easily derivatize these systems. We have been very involved with fused five membered heterocyclics and understanding their electrophilic and nucleophilic substitution chemistries and the incorporation of these fused five membered heterocycles into large conjugated macrocycles. Being a challenging area of Organic chemistry, graduate students learn how to perform difficult syntheses, purifications of oxidatively unstable compounds, and structural characterization involving advanced NMR techniques. Most of these compounds are utilized as monomers for the projects described below.

Polymer Synthesis:

Polymer syntheses range from the classical polymerization techniques such as ring opening polymerization, free radical, and condensation polymerizations to more recently reported techniques such as ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) using well defined homogenous catalysts, atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), and sophisticated electro and optical crosslinking methods.

Optically Transparent Conductive Polymers:

The goal of this program is to develop new organic polymers having very low band gaps that are processable in common organic solvents and water. These materials are under development for the incorporation into display-based technologies.

Nanofibers:

The goal of this program is to continue the development of new materials to be electrostatically spun in order to generate fibers that change color. These materials are to be incorporated into wearable and flexible displays. Furthermore, they are to be utilized as high surface area chemosensors for an electronic nose.

Nanolithography:

Here, the goal is to rapidly generate nano-objects and nanopatterns of conjugated polymers and to study their electrical and electro-optic properties. For direct-write technology, we utilize electrochemical atomic force microscopy (EC-AFM) to generate ca. 50 nm width lines of conjugated polymer. We also utilize nanoimprint, a.k.a. nanoembossing, as a procedure to rapidly generate nanopatterns of conjugated polymer over large areas. One objective of this program is to generate and study quantum confined organic semiconductors and try to gain an understanding of their properties.

Recent Publications

  1. Wang, Yanbing; Sotzing, Gregory A.; Weiss, R. A. Sorption of iodine by polyurethane and melamine-formaldehyde foams using iodine sublimation and iodine solutions. Polymer (2006), 47(8), 2728-2740.
  2. Lee, Byoungchul; Yavuz, Mustafa S.; Sotzing, Gregory A.. Poly(thieno[3,4-b]thiophene)s from Three Symmetrical Thieno[3,4-b]thiophene Dimers. Macromolecules (2006), 39(9), 3118-3124.
  3. Kumar, Arvind; Buyukmumcu, Zeki; Sotzing, Gregory A.. Poly(thieno[3,4-b]furan). A New Low Band Gap Conjugated Polymer. Macromolecules (2006), 39(8), 2723-2725.
  4. Seshadri, Venkataramanan; Sotzing, Gregory A.. Progress in optically transparent conducting polymers. Optical Science and Engineering (2005), 99(Organic Photovoltaics), 495-527.
  5. Lee, Byoungchul; Seshadri, Venkataramanan; Sotzing, Gregory A.. Poly(thieno[3,4-b]thiophene)-Poly(styrene sulfonate): A Low Band Gap, Water Dispersible Conjugated Polymer. Langmuir (2005), 21(23), 10797-10802.
  6. Jang, S.-Y.; Marquez, M.; Sotzing, G. A.. Writing of Conducting Polymers using Nanoelectrochemistry. Synthetic Metals (2005), 152(1-3), 345-348.
  7. Lee, Byoungchul; Seshadri, Venkataramanan; Sotzing, Gregory A.. Water Dispersible Low Band Gap Conductive Polymer Based on Thieno[3,4-b]thiophene. Synthetic Metals (2005), 152(1-3), 177-180.
  8. Draper, Russell S.; Wood, Michael V.; Radmard, Bijan; Mahmud, Ken; Schuler, Peter; Sotzing, Gregory A.; Seshadri, Venkataraman; Mino, Warren; Padilla, Javier; Otero, Tobibio F. Electrochromic variable transmission optical combiner. Proceedings of SPIE-The International Society for Optical Engineering (2005), 5801, 268-277.
  9. Jang, Sung-Yeon; Seshadri, Venkataramanan; Khil, Myung-Seob; Kumar, Arvind; Marquez, Manuel; Mather, Patrick T.; Sotzing, Gregory A.. Welded electrochromic conductive polymer nanofibers by electrostatic spinning. Advanced Materials (Weinheim, Germany) (2005), 17(18), 2177-2180.
  10. Lee, Byoungchul; Seshadri, Venkataramanan; Palko, Heather; Sotzing, Gregory A.. Ring-sulfonated poly(thienothiophene). Advanced Materials (Weinheim, Germany) (2005), 17(14), 1792-1795.

Polymer Program: 860.486.3582: polymer@ims.uconn.edu