Supramolecular Self-assembly of Columnar Liquid Crystals
We seeks to achieve fundamental understanding of novel nanostructure and morphology in supramolecular columnar liquid crystals (LCs) with immiscible polymer side chains, and to manipulate spontaneous curvature in a microphase-separated single LC column on nanometer length scales. Rational material design and precise engineering of the spontaneous self-assembly of the supramolecular columnar LCs will lead to a new generation of nanomaterials for nanotechnology.

This research is funded by NSF CAREER Award (DMR-0348724), 3M (Non-tenured Faculty Award, '04), and DuPont (Young Professor Grant, '05).

Organic / Inorganic Nanocomposites for Capacitors
Nanosize inorganic fillers can be employed in polymers to enhance their macroscopic properties. In this research, we are aiming nanosize dispersion of inorganic fillers, such as layered silicates, nanotubes, and quantum dots. Robust material characterization techniques such as X-ray scattering, TEM, and rheology study will be utilized to test these materials.

This research is funded by ONR (N00014-05-1-0338) and AFOSR subcontract.

Biodegradable Polymers and Block Copolymers for Diagnostic and Drug Delivery
We intend to use biodegradable, dendrimer-like star polymers to conjugate RNA nanostructures for targeted diagnostic and drug delivery. These biomaterials are thus so-called artificial antibodies. Research include rational design and synthesis of polylactide dendrimer-like polymers, characterization, conjugation to RNA nanostructures, and biodegradability and biocompatibility studies. Meanwhile, we are also interested to achieve self-assembled onion nanoparticles using polylactide block copolymers.

This research is funded by ACS PRF-G (41918-G7) and NSF DMR-0705716.

Polymer Ordering on Nanometer Scales
Polymer crystallization and liquid crystal formation in nanospaces is expected to exhibit unusual behavior too. Synchrotron small- and wide-angle X-ray scatterings are employed to "look at" the nanophases and molecular crystalline structures simultaneously. Real-space TEM technique is used to visualize the nanostructures in real spaces.

This research was funded by ACS PRF-G (41918-G7), 3M (Non-tenured Faculty Award, '04), and DuPont (Young Professor Grant, '05)