Polymer Science Faculty Research
Celebrating over 50 years of polymers. The University of Akron is the center of Akron, Ohio, the Polymer Capital of the World. Since 1956, students and faculty from around the globe have come to UA to focus on polymer innovations and applications of research in science, technology, and medicine. In fact, The University of Akron is the only graduate college in the US that offers both Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering programs. The 25th anniversary of the College was celebrated in 2013.
Submissions from 2015
Identification of Individual Isotopes in a Polymer Blend Using Tip Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy, Rebecca L. Agapov, Jacob D. Scherger, Alexei P. Sokolov, and Mark. D. Foster
Ubiquitous Distribution of Salts and Proteins in Spider Glue Enhances Spider Silk Adhesion, Gaurav Amarpuri, Vishal Chaurasia, Dharamdeep Jain, Todd A. Blackledge, and Ali Dhinojwala
Crown-Shaped Tungstogermanates as Solvent-Controlled Dual Systems in the Formation of Vesicle-Like Assemblies, Benat Artetxe, Santiago Reinoso, Leire San Felices, Juan M. Gutierrez-Zorrilla, Jose A. Garcia, Fadi Haso, Tianbo Liu, and Cristian Vicent
a Modern Approach to the Solution and Analysis of the Simha-Somcynsky Model for the Description of Pressure-Volume-Temperature Properties of Polymer Fluids, Gustavo A. Carri
Helical Jump Motions of Poly(l-Lactic Acid) Chains in the α Phase As Revealed by Solid-State NMR, Wei Chen, Detlef Reichert, and Toshikazu Miyoshi
Butterfly-Shaped Diphenylpyrimidine Molecule: Tunable Photophysical Properties by Molecular Self-Assembly Pathways, Yu-Jin Choi, Minwook Park, Dae-Yoon Kim, Chih-Hao Hsu, Seok-Ho Hwang, and Kwang-Un Jeong
Consequences of Water between Two Hydrophobic Surfaces on Adhesion and Wetting, Adrain P. Defante, Tarak N. Burai, Matthew L. Becker, and Ali Dhinojwala
Self-Powered Electronics by Integration of Flexible Solid-State Graphene-Based Supercapacitors with High Performance Perovskite Hybrid Solar Cells, Pengcheng Du, Xiaowen Hu, Chao Yi, Huckleberry C. Liu, Peng Lui, Hao-Li Zhang, and Xiong Gong
Experimental Measurements of U60 Nanocluster Stability in Aqueous Solution, Shannon L. Flynn, Jennifer E. S. Syzmanowski, Yunyi Gao, Tianbo Liu, Peter C. Burns, and Jeremy B. Fein
Exploring the Effect of Surface Functionality on the Self-Assembly of Polyoxopalladate Macroions, Fadi Haso, Peng Yang, Yunyi Gao, Panchao Yin, Hui Li, Tao Li, Ulrich Kortz, and Tianbo Liu
Chain Trajectory and Crystallization Mechanism of a Semicrystalline Polymer in Melt- and Solution-Grown Crystals As Studied Using 13C–13C Double-Quantum NMR, You-lee Hong, Tadanori Koga, and Toshikazu Miyoshi
Selective Assemblies of Giant Tetrahedra via Precisely Controlled Positional Interactions, Mingjun Huang, Chih-Hao Hsu, Jing Wang, Shan Mei, Xuehui Dong, Yiwen Li, Mingxuan Li, Hao Liu, Wei Zhang, Takuzo Aida, Wen-bin Zhang, Kan Yue, and Stephen Z. D. Cheng
Preparation of TiO2–MWCNT Core/Shell Heterostructures Containing a Single MWCNT and Their Electromagnetic Properties, Xu Huang, Kai Wang, Kun Jia, and Xiaobo Liu
NMR Spectroscopy Reveals the Presence and Association of Lipids and Keratin in Adhesive Gecko Setae, Dharamdeep Jain, Alyssa Y. Stark, Peter H. Niewiarowski, Toshikazu Miyoshi, and Ali Dhinojwala
Radiopaque, Iodine Functionalized, Phenylalanine-Based Poly(ester urea)s, Shan Li, Jiayi Yu, Mary Beth Wade, Gina M. Policastro, and Matthew L. Becker
Single-Junction Polymer Solar Cells with Over 10% Efficiency by a Novel Two-Dimensional Donor–Acceptor Conjugated Copolymer, Chang Liu, Chao Yi, Kai Wang, Yali Yang, Ram S. Bhatta, Mesfin Tsige, Shuyong Xiao, and Xiong Gong
Three-Dimensional Bicontinuous Graphene Monolith from Polymer Templates, Kewei Liu, Yu-Ming Chen, Gina M. Policastro, Matthew L. Becker, and Yu Zhu
Molecular Mechanisms for Conformational and Rheological Responses of Entangled Polymer Melts to Startup Shear, Yuyuan Lu, Lijia An, Shi-Qing Wang, and Zhen-Gang Wang
Modeling and Optimization of Ultrasonic Devulcanization Using the Response Surface Methodology Based on Central Composite Face-Centered Design, Ivan Mangili, Marina Lasagni, Keyuan Huang, and Avraam I. Isayev
Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of SO2 Adsorption over the 1,3-Phenylenediamine/SiO2 System, Duane D. Miller and Steven S.C. Chuang
Dual Functionalized Telechelic Block Copolymers with Reproducible Block Sizes Prepared by Microwave Assisted RAFT Polymerization, Kaushik Mishra and Abraham Joy
Pathway toward Large Two-Dimensional Hexagonally Patterned Colloidal Nanosheets in Solution, Bo Ni, Mingjun Huang, Ziran Chen, Yingchao Chen, Chih-Hao Hsu, Yiwen Li, Darrin Pochan, Wen-Bin Zhang, Stephen Z. D. Cheng, and Xue-Hui Dong
Influences of Feeding Strategies on AA and MAA Carboxylated Latexes, Martin Ocepek, Peter Berce, Tina Razborsek, Jozefa Zabret, Lei Meng, and Mark D. Soucek
Self-Emulsion Polymerization of Baylis–Hillman-Derived α-Hydroxymethyl-Substituted Acrylates, Chao Peng and Abraham Joy
OGP Functionalized Phenylalanine-Based Poly(ester urea) for Enhancing Osteoinductive Potential of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Gina M. Policastro, Fei Lin, Laura A. Smith Callahan, Andrew Esterle, Matthew Graham, and Matthew L. Becker
Facile Non-Lithographic Route to Highly Aligned Silica Nanopatterns Using Unidirectionally Aligned Polystyrene-Block-Polydimethylsiloxane Films, Zhe Qiang, Maurice L. Wadley, Bryan D. Vogt, and Kevin A. Cavicchi
First Investigation of the Kinetic Hydrate Inhibition of a Series of Poly(β-peptoid)s on Structure II Gas Hydrate, Including the Comparison of Block and Random Copolymers, Fernando T. Reyes, Malcolm A. Kelland, Nishant Kumar, and Li Jia
Electroless Plated Cu–Ni Anode Catalyst for Natural Gas Solid Oxide Fuel Cells, Azadeh Rismanchian, Jelvehnaz Mirzababaei, and Steven S. C. Chuang
Visualization of the Architecture of Poly(α-Lipoic Acid) Using Atomic Force Microscopy, Emily Q. Rosenthal-Kim, Rebecca L. Agapov, and Judit E. Puskas
Supramolecular Elastomers: Self-Assembling Star–Blocks of Soft Polyisobutylene and Hard Oligo(β-alanine) Segments, Joseph Scavuzzo, Shogo Tomita, Shiwang Cheng, Hao Liu, Min Gao, Joseph P. Kennedy, Shinichi Sakurai, Stephen Z.D. Cheng, and Li Jia
Prop-2-Yn-1-Yl 2-Bromo-2-Methylpropanoate: Identification and Suppression of Side Reactions of a Commonly Used Terminal Alkyne-Functional ATRP Initiator, WIlliam K. Storms-Miller and Coleen Pugh
A Library of Thermoresponsive, Coacervate-Forming Biodegradable Polyesters, John P. Swanson, Leanna R. Monteleone, Fadi Haso, Philip J. Costanzo, Tianbo Liu, and Abraham Joy
Rubbery Wound Closure Adhesives. II. Initiators for and Initiation of 2-Octyl Cyanoacrylate Polymerization, Istvan Szanka, Amalia Szanka, and Joseph P. Kennedy
Rubbery Wound Closure Adhesives. I. Design, Synthesis, Characterization, and Testing of Polyisobutylene-Based Cyanoacrylate Homo- and Co-Networks, Istvan Szanka, Amalia Szanka, Sinan Sen, Nihan Nugay, and Joseph P. Kennedy
Effects of Magnetic Nanoparticles and External Magnetostatic Field on the Bulk Heterojunction Polymer Solar Cells, Kai Wang, Chao Yi, Chang Liu, Xiaowen Hu, Steven Chuang, and Xiong Gong
A Ga3+Self-Assembled Fluorescent Probe for ATP Imaging in Vivo, Liangliang Xiao, Shiguo Sun, Zhichao Pei, Yuxin Pei, Yi Pang, and Yongqian Xu
Bio-Inspired Structural Colors Produced via Self-Assembly of Synthetic Melanin Nanoparticles, Ming Xiao, Yiwen Li, Michael C. Allen, Dimitri D. Deheyn, Xiujun Yue, Jiuzhou Zhao, Nathan C. Gianneschi, Matthew D. Shawkey, and Ali Dhinojwala
Enhanced Thermoelectric Properties of Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) by Binary Secondary Dopants, Chao Yi, Abigail Wilhite, Long Zhang, Rundong Hu, Steven S. C. Chuang, and Xiong Gong
Charge-Regulated Spontaneous, Reversible Self-Assembly of the Carboxylic Acid-Functionalized Hydrophilic Fullerene Macroanions in Dilute Solution, Panchao Yin, Zhiwei Lin, Jiayingzi Wu, Chih-Hao Hsu, Xinyue Chen, Jing Zhou, Pengtao Lu, Seyed Ali Eghtesadi, Xinfei Yu, Stephen Z. D. Cheng, and Tianbo Liu
Determination of Local Packing Structure of Mesomorphic Form of Isotactic Polypropylene by Solid-State NMR, Shichen Yuan, Zhen Li, Jia Kang, You-lee Hong, Akihiro Kamimura, Akihiro Otsubo, and Toshikazu Miyoshi
Branched Amino Acid Based Poly(ester urea)s with Tunable Thermal and Water Uptake Properties, Jiayi Yu, Fei Lin, and Matthew L. Becker
Preparation and Characterization of STRG/PI Composite Films with Optimized Dielectric and Mechanical Properties, Pengtu Zhang, Jianjie He, Zhong-Kai Cui, Xinxin Li, Xiaoyun Liu, Shuo Zhang, Qixin Zhuang, and Zhewen Han
Toward Rational and Modular Molecular Design in Soft Matter Engineering, Wen-Bin Zhang and Stephen Z. D. Cheng
Post-Electrospinning “Triclick” Functionalization of Degradable Polymer Nanofibers, Jukuan Zheng, Geng Hua, Jiayi Yu, Fei Lin, Mary Beth Wade, Darrell H. Reneker, and Matthew L. Becker
Spontaneous Self-Assembly of γ-Cyclodextrins in Dilute Solutions with Tunable Sizes and Thermodynamic Stability, Jing Zhou, Panchao Yin, Yunyi Gao, Lang Hu, and Tianbo Liu
Biomimetic and Nanostructured Hybrid Bioactive Glass, Xianfeng Zhou, Nita Sahai, Lin Qi, Steven Mankoci, and Weilong Zhao
Thermal Behavior of Long-Chain Alcohols on Sapphire Substrate, He Zhu and Ali Dhinojwala
Cyclability of a Lithium–Oxygen Battery Containing N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone and a Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotube Cathode, Yu Zhu, Aozhen Xie, and Yu Zhu
Submissions from 2014
Modular Surface Functionalization of Polyisobutylene-Based Thermoplastic Elastomers, Alejandra Alvarez Albarran, Judit E. Puskas, and Liu Lingyun
Preparation of dendritic adamantane-based polymers/layered silicate nanocomposites, Amal Amin, Heb Kandil, Mohamed Nader Ismail, Nergis Makal, Charles N. Moorefield, and George R. Newkome
Rationally Designed Poly(Dimethyltin Glutarate) as a High Dielectric Organometallic Polymer for Energy Storage Applications, Aaron F. Baldwin, RUi Ma, Arun M. K. Kumar, Tran Doan Huan, Chenchen Wang, Jolanta Marszalek, Mukerrem Cakmak, Ramamurthy Ramprasad, and Gregory A. Sotzing
Peptide Functionalized Nanofibers for Regenerative Medicine, Matthew Becker
Dopamine-Based Copper-Free Click Kit for Efficient Surface Functionalization, Matthew Becker, Alamgir Karim, Ying Chen, and Jukuan Zheng
Building Bone with Polymers: An Unconventional Approach, Matthew L. Becker
A brief review of Badger-Bauer rule and its validation from a first- principles approach, Ram S. Bhatta, Prasad P. Iyer, Ali Dhinojwala, and Mesfin Tsige
Chain length and torsional dependence of exciton binding energies in P3HT and PTB7 conjugated polymers: A first-principles study, Ram S. Bhatta and Mesfin Tsige
Precise Functionalization of Polymers Using CALB-Based Enzymatic Methods, Marcelo Castano, Kwang Su Seo, Jukuan Zheng, Matthew L. Becker, and Judit D. Puskas
Molecular Nanoparticles Are Unique Elements for Macromolecular Science, Stephen Z. D. Cheng
Unraveling the Mystery of Natural Rubber Biosynthesis. Part II: Composition and Growth of in Vitro Natural Rubber Using High-Resolution Size Exclusion Chromatography, Cheng Ching K. Chiang, Balaka Barkakaty, Judit E. Puskas, Wenshuang Xie, Katrina Cornish, Federic Peruch, and Alain Deffieux
Morphological Correlations in Model Poly(Alkylthiophene)-Fullerene Thin Film OPV Devices, Nabanakur Ded, David G. bucknall, Alamgir Karim, Xiong Gong, Max Skoda, and Sarah Rodgers
The Role of Surface Chemistry in Adhesion and Wetting of Gecko Toe Pads, Ali Dhinojwala, Peter H. Niewiarowski, Ila Badge, Alyssa Y. Stark, and Eva L. Paoloni
Molecular Structure of Poly(methyl methacrylate) Surface. I. Combination of Interface-Sensitive Infrared–Visible Sum Frequency Generation, Molecular Dynamics Simulations, and ab Initio Calculations, Ali Dhinojwala, Mesfin Tsige, Ram S. Bhatta, Kshitij Chandra Jha, and He Zhu
Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotubes/Graphene Hybrid Electrode as a TCO- and Pt-Free Flexible Cathode for Application in Solar Cells, Pei Dong, Yu Zhu, Jing Zhang, Feng Hao, Jingjie Wu, Sidong Lei, Hong Lin, Robert H. Hauge, James M. Tour, and Jun Lou
Graphene on Metal Grids as the Transparent Conductive Material for Dye Sensitized Solar Cell, Pei Dong, Yu Zhu, Jing Zhang, Cheng Peng, Zheng Yan, Lei Li, Zhiwei Peng, Gedeng Ruan, Wanyao Xiao, Hong Lin, James M. Tour, and Jun Lou
Electrospinning of Resorbable, Amino Acid-Based Poly(Ester Urea)S for Small Diameter Vascular Graft, Yaohua Gao, Fei Lin, Darrell Hyson Reneker, and Matthew L. Becker
Synthesis of Block Copolymers of Isobutylene and Alloocimene, Attila L. Gergely and Judit D. Puskas
Interfacial Engineering for High Performance Inverted Polymer Solar Cells, Xiong Gong, Chao Yi, Xiaowen Hu, He Ren, Lin Huang, Xiaocun Lu, Fei Huang, Yong Cao, George R. Newkome, and Stephen Z.D. Cheng
Supramolecular Assemblies of Polyoxometalate-Tethered Diblock Copolymers with Tunable Sizes in N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone/Toluene Mixed Solvents, Fadi Haso, Ruixin Wang, Panchao Yin, Jing Zhou, Lu Jin, Zhonhhua Peng, and Tianbo Liu
Efficient Generation of Model Bulk Heterojunction Morphologies for Organic Photovoltaic Device Modeling, Michael C. Heiber and Ali Dhinojwala
Molecular Structure of Poly(methyl methacrylate) Surface II: Effect of Stereoregularity Examined through All-Atom Molecular Dynamics, Kshitij Chandra Jha, He Zhu, Ali Dhinojwala, and Mesfin Tsige
Supramolecular Elastomers Based on Oligo(Beta-Alanine) Crosslinking Platform, Li Jia
Drug Eluting Electrospun Rubbery Fiber Mats, Aditya Jindal, Andrea A. Charif, John Friess, and Judit E. Puskas
Coarse-Grained Modeling of Peptidic/PDMS Triblock Morphology, J. Casey Johnson, LaShanda T.J. Korley, and Mesfin Tsige
Neutron and X-Ray Scattering Based Correlation of Novel Nanomaterials, Processing, Phase Morphology and Device Efficiency in OPVs, Alamgir Karim, David Bucknall, Abul Huq, Jose C. Garza, Xiong Gong, Yan Sun, and Praveen P. Pitliya
Directed Self Assembly of Block Copolymer Thin Films with Dynamic Thermal Annealing and Flexible Interfaces, Alamgir Karim, Gurpreet Singh, Arzu Hayirilioglu, Ren Zhang, Arvind Modi, and Kevin Yager
Supramolecular Thermoplastic Elastomers, Nishant C. Kumar, Joseph J. Scavuzzo, and Li Jia
Surface Segregation Driven by Molecular Architecture Asymmetry in Polymer Blends, Jae Sik Lee, Nam Heui Lee, Somesh Peri, Mark. D. Foster, Charles F. Majkrzak, Renfeng Hu, and David T. Wu
The influence of binary processing additives on the performance of polymer solar cells, Chang Liu, Xiaowen Hu, Chengmei Zhong, Mingjun Huang, Kai Wang, Zhan Zhang, Xiong Gong, Yong Cao, and Alan J. Heeger
Thiol-Michael "click" chemistry: another efficient tool for head functionalization of giant surfactants, Yiwen Li, Hao Su, Xueyan Feng, Xueyan Feng, Zhao Wang, Kai Guo, Chrys Wesdemiotis, Qiang Fu, Stephen Z.D. Cheng, and Wen-Bin Zhang
In-Situ Infrared Study of the Synthesis of Polyaniline Under Acid and Neutral pH, Mehdi Lohrasbi, Nader Hedayat, and Steven SC Chuang
Probing a Hidden World of Molecular Self-Assembly: Concentration-Dependent, Three-Dimensional Supramolecular Interconversions, Xiaocun Lu, Xiaopeng Li, Kai Guo, Ting-Zheng Xie, Charles N. Moorefield, Chrys Wesdemiotis, and George R. Newkome
One Ligand in Dual Roles: Self-Assembly of a Bis-Rhomboidal-Shaped, Three-Dimensional Molecular Wheel, Xiaocun Lu, Xiaopeng Li, Yuanhao Guo, Jing Wang, Mingjun Huang, Jin-Liang Wang, Ting-Zheng Xie, Charles N. Moorefield, Stephen Z.D. Cheng, Chrys Wesdemiotis, and George R. Newkome
Terpyridine-Based, Coordination-Driven, 2D and 3D Supramolecular Architectures, Xiaocun Lu, Xiaopeng Li, Charles N. Moorefield, Chys Wesdemiotis, and George R. Newkome
Facile Fabrication Of "Dual Click" 1-And 2D Orthogonal Concentration Gradients for Stem Cell Differentiation Direction, Yanrui Ma and Matthew L. Becker
Porous Poly(vinyl alcohol) Composite Membranes for Immobilization of Glucose Oxidase, Ernesto Silva Mojica, Mehdi Lohrasbi, and Steven S.C. Chuang
Modified Soybean Oil as a Reactive Diluent: Synthesis and Characterization, Priyanka P. Nalawade, Brinda Mayank Mehta, Coleen Pugh, and Mark D. Soucek
Inside Nanofibers: Molecular Scale Images and Electron Beam Induced Changes, Darrell H. Reneker, Zhenxin Zhong, and Jane Howe
One-Step Multicomponent Self-Assembly of a First-Generation Sierpiński Triangle: From Fractal Design to Chemical Reality, Rajarshi Sarkar, Kai Guo, Charles N. Moorefield, Mary Jane Saunders, Chrys Wesdemiotis, and George R. Newkome
Exploring the Symmetry, Structure, and Self-Assembly Mechanism of a Gigantic Seven-Fold Symmetric {Pd-84} Wheel, Rachel A. Scullion, Andrew J. Surman, Feng Xu, Jennifer S. Mathieson, De-Liang Long, Fadi Haso, Tianbo Liu, and Leroy Cronin
Directed Differentiation and Neurite Extension of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell on Aligned Poly(Lactide) Nanofibers Functionalized with YIGSR Peptide, Laura A. Smith-Callahan, Jukuan Zheng, Ian Barker, Darrell H. Reneker, Andrew P. Dove, and Matthew L. Becker
"Click" reactions: a versatile toolbox for the synthesis of peptide-conjugates, Wen Tang and Matthew Becker
Bioactive Surface Modification of Metal Oxides via Catechol-Bearing Modular Peptides: Multivalent-Binding, Surface Retention, and Peptide Bioactivity, Wen Tang, Gina M. Policastro, Geng Hua, Kai Guo, Chrys Wesdemiotis, Gary L. Doll, and Matthew Becker
Hydroxyapatite-Targeting Dendrons and Its Application as Osteoinductive Peptide Sequestering, Wen Tang, Jinjun Zhou, Fei Lin, Jukuan Zheng, and Matthew L. Becker
Structural Control in Block Copolymer-Templated Nanoporous Carbon Films, Bryan D. Vogt, Zhe Qiang, Jiachen Xue, Guodong Deng, Alamgir Karim, and Kevin A. Cavicchi
Formulation and photoirradiation parameters that influenced photoresponsive drug delivery using alkoxylphenacyl-based polycarbonates, Daniel Wehrung, Elaheh A. Chamsaz, Abraham Joy, and Moses O. Oyewumi
Patternable Conjugated Polymers with Latent Hydrogen-Bonding on the Main Chain, Kun Yang, Tianda He, Xiaoyi Chen, Stephen Z. D. Cheng, and Yu Zhu
Shape Amphiphiles Based on POSS-Polymer Conjugates: Systematic Molecular Design, Sequential "Click" Synthesis, and Diverse Self-Assembly Behaviors, Kan Yue, Chang Liu, Kan Wu, Wen Bin Zhang, and Stephen Z. D. Cheng
Giant Surfactants Based on Molecular Nanoparticles: Precise Synthesis and Solution Self-assembly, Xinfei Yu, Yiwen Yui, Xue-Hui Dong, Kan Yue, Zhiwei Lin, Xueyan Feng, Mingjun Huang, Wen-Bin Zhang, and Stephen Z. D. Cheng
Steric Hindrance Effect on Phase Behavior of Dendronized Crown Ethers, Ben Zhang, Jun J. Wang, Chih-Hao Hsu, Shuang Yang, and Er-Qiang Chen
The Effect of a Solid Surface on the Segregation and Melting of Salt Hydrates, Yu Zhang, Emmanuel Anim-Danso, and Ali Dhinojwala