CAREER: Building Adaptive Interfaces from Field-Responsive Materials

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This proposal describes an integrated research and educational plan studying the design and synthesis of electroactive and conducting polymers to be used for chemical separations and sensing technologies. Chemical selectivity will be manipulated in the polymers by incorporating targeted fuctional groups in the polymeric structure. The electroactive nature of the polymer provides a mechanism for external manipulation of the polymer's properties leading to a novel class of materials with tunable behavior. Ion selectivity for example, could be controlled by electrochemically switching a conducting polymer from its reduced, insulating state to an oxidized conducting form. The educational plan involves the development of new courses focusing on the properties of these types of materials and redesigning the undergraduate laboratory course to integrate this material into the laboratory curriculum.