E. Bryan Coughlin

Current Research

"Tailoring Chemical Functionality to Generate Functional Polymeric Materials". We strive, through development of novel, and adaptation of known synthetic methods, to create new polymeric materials with properties suitable for a range of demanding applications. Our projects begin with synthesis  and sustainability as a major motivators, however characterization studies to test our hypotheses and to inform the next round of synthetic efforts is also given significant emphasis. Our efforts can be sub-divided several project areas:

Ion Transport in Organic Materials. Ion transport in complex heterogeneous organic media is ubiquitous to many important energy conversion devices, particularly fuel cells and batteries that have the potential to revolutionize energy conversion.

Polymer Upcycling and Sustainability.  The outstanding chemical stability of polymers simultaneously makes them robust, durable and the foundation of modern plastics, while also presenting tremendous challenges to designing feasible synthetic routes for polymer upcycling.

Precisely Functionalized Polymers. Using multi-step controlled polymerization methodologies in conjunction with single-molecule insertion (SMI), we develop synthetic pathways to synthesize a range of architecturally precise multi-arm block copolymers.

Fire-Safe Polymers and Polymer Composites. Advanced polymeric materials with improved burn resistance are being developed to reduce fire deaths in civilian and military transportation, or other areas of limited egress

Novel Inorganic-Organic Hybrid Copolymers. Synthetic strategies to generate ordered, nanometer length scale inorganic domains within polymer matrices are being developed using polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes, or icosahedral closo dicarbadodecaboranes.