Research
Research Overview
Synthetic polymers are usually heterogeneous systems composed of molecules with different molecular weight and chemical structure. The polydispersity of polymer molecules, which influences both the processing and the performance of polymer materials. is intrinsically generated from the heterogeneity in polymerization kinetics among individual polymer molecules during the synthesis process.
Our research will be focused on the studies of polymerization reactions and polymer physical properties using Magnetic Tweezers and Single-molecule Localization Microscopy, aiming to (1) explore the origin of the heterogeneity in polymerization kinetics and (2) establish the structure-property relationship of polymer materials on molecular level.
Our research interests include, but not limited to:
Visualization of controlled polymerizations in operando
Characterization of single chain mechanics and properties
Chain-surface interactions & Inter-chain interactions
Single-molecule Localization Microscopy (SMLM)
SMFM captures the fluorescence signals from single objects under laser excitation. The objects could be dyes, fluorescent proteins, nanoparticles or polymers. The location of the objects can be determined within nanometer resolution.
Recent Publications:
In Operando Visualization of Elementary Turnovers in Photocatalytic Organic Synthesis. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2024, 15, 717–724.
Recognition of Single Fluorescence Events by Temporal Pixel Intensity Fluctuation. Chem. Biomed. Imaging 2023, 1, 234–241.
Surface Preparation for Single-Molecule Fluorescence Imaging in Organic Solvents. Langmuir 2022, 38, 15848-15857.
Super-resolution imaging of nonfluorescent reactions via competition. Nat. Chem. 2019, 11, 687-694.
Magnetic Tweezers (MT)
MT uses external magnetic field to exert stretching forces onto a single polymer chain tethered between the surface and the magnetic particle. The physical properties of the polymer chains can be extracted from the force-extension curves.
Recent Publications:
Tuning Single-Polymer Growth via Hydrogen Bonding in Conformational Entanglements. ACS Cent. Sci. 2022, 8, 1116-1124.
Single-Chain Polymerization Dynamics and Conformational Mechanics of Conjugated Polymers. Chem 2021, 7, 2175-2189.
Real-time Single Polymer Growth toward Single-Monomer Resolution. Trends Chem. 2021, 3, 318-331.
Single Polymer Growth Dynamics. Science, 2017, 358, 352-355.