Research Areas: Polymer and Materials Chemistry

Our research interests revolve around a number of themes in polymer chemistry and materials science. Current research is focused in three main areas: polymer membranes, polymeric nanostructures and polyurethanes. We emphasize on synthesis of complex macromolecular architectures and understanding of their structure-property relationships, which are key in improving the polymer performance and designing new materials. We seek to develop unique polymeric materials for variety of applications which include fuel cell, water electrolyser, flow batteries, sensors, drug delivery, protein binding, energetic polymers, coatings, environmentally benign polymers etc. We employ step-growth, emulsion, photo, radical and RAFT polymerizations techniques to synthesize the newly designed polymers. Our group utilizes these synthesized polymers to develop novel ion exchange membranes, miscible blends, polymer gels and hydrogels, colloids, core-shell nanostructures, nanocomposites for their potential use in the above mentioned application areas.