Abstract:
iPhones now come in all sizes - mini, pro, and pro max - and so does my PhD work. In this talk, I’ll walk you through how light-activated chemistry lets us build functional materials across different scales, from bulk materials to polymer dots.
I will first describe photo-crosslinked antimicrobial textiles based on poly(ethylene-co-acrylic acid), which create durable dual-functional antimicrobial surfaces. Then I will introduce a minimalistic fluorescent photopatterning method using only aminated PDMS and a conjugated polymer F8BT, enabling patterning in thin films and from aqueous polymer dots. Finally, I’ll present polymer-coated PDMS sponges engineered for heavy-metal capture and oil extraction. These projects demonstrate how photochemistry and polymer design can generate functional coatings and materials for sensing, patterning, and environmental remediation