Organic, Polymer, and Hybrid Materials Research

The advancement of science and technology and improvement of life quality has always been propelled by the discoveries on, while limited by the availability of, materials. Compared with metallic and inorganic counterparts, organic and polymeric materials are unique in their molecular nature that allows meticulous structural designs for targeted properties and hierarchical assembly into applicable forms. Thus, understanding structure-property-function relationship and the synthetic ability to tailor chemical structures toward desired properties for specific applications are of central importance in chemical and material sciences. Our research is therefore focused on design and synthesis of conjugated organic and polymeric materials, organic/inorganic hybrid materials, and their applications in energy and environment. We closely collaborate with theoreticians, spectroscopists, and engineers in- and out-side of UNM, at other Universities and National Laboratoreis. Several projects are concurrently carried out in our research group as listed below, click on each to learn more.

1. Precise nanostructuring organic/inorganic multi-component composites through supramolecular cooperation of orthogonal non-covalent interactions.

2. Pt-containing conjugated small molecules and polymers for applications in organic photovoltaics (OPVs).

3. Design and synthesis of structurally diverse poly(chacolgenylene vinylene)s.

4. Unconventional conjugated polymers derived from a common set of trans-enediyene monomers.

5. Templated synthesis of metal-organic framework (MOF) nanostructures and tailored construction of charge-separated MOFs.

We gratefully thank the following sponsors for generously supporting our research