-----My research interest the development of biomimetic materials for sensor materials and drug delivery carriers. Research in this particular area show great potential for improvement, specifically within the realm of low crosslinked polymer systems such as hydrogels. These novel materials can be developed for application of drug over a given period of time to a specific area of the body i.e. wound, burn, eye, or in vivo. Other interest include the developement of high tensile strength polymers for the developement of personal protective equipment that provide better protection from small arms fire and high velocity projectiles resulting from improvised explosive devices.

My teaching interests include thermodynamics, polymer thermodynamics, environmental transport, and chemical engineering thermodynamics.

My current research has delt with novel recognitive polymers which are macromolecular structures that retain their binding characteristics in a wide range of pH and temperature environments. These bio-compatible materials show great promise for robust and inexpensive sensor coatings and point of care devices. At the molecular level, binding characteristics are a direct resultant of functional interactions between the incorporated functional monomer and the target molecule. At the intra-macromolecular level, the macromolecular structure has formed size specific pockets containing matching functional moieties to that of the target molecule thus providing multiple functional complexation points. Both functional interactions and macromolecular structure play a determining role in the resultant binding characteristics shown by the recognitive polymer for the target molecule.

Biomimetic acrylate and methacrylate based co-polymer networks which compromise the majority of recognitive polymer networks have been “trained” to have a macromolecular memory for the target molecule. However, characterization of the polymer network in order to determine relationships on how to tailor feed compositions in order to optimize the binding characteristics of the resultant polymer network has been largely neglected. This work reflects on what effect compositional parameters have upon resulting binding characteristics. Reaction analysis was done on polymerization reactions with the focus on determination how the feed composition affects double bond conversions, kinetics, and resultant binding characteristics. Results show that increasing the double bond conversion have effects upon binding characteristics by modest increases in loading capacity while maintaining relatively equivalent binding affinity.

This work also focuses on the macromolecular architectural structure and the resultant binding characteristics. The use of living/controlled polymerization has shown in linear polymer systems to give low polydispersities and the unique ablity to form specific block copolymers. Exploration of living/controlled polymerization It is hypothesized that a more homogenous architectural structure would lead to more optimally formed binding sites that would essentially increase the affinity, selectivity, and loading capacity of these recognitive polymer networks. Living/controlled polymerization techniques have shown increases the loading capacity while retaining selectivity for the target molecule. Examination of mesh size for each type recognitive network will give insight as to what living/controlled polymerization techniques have upon the resulting mesh size for these recognitive polymer networks.