Congratulations to Will Presson for becoming a 2026-27 Graduate Fellow of the Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology! This prestigious fellowship funds Ph.D. students whose research aligns with large-scale energy challenges.
Category: Group-News
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Congratulations to Dr. Benjamin Ferko on a successful thesis defense!
Dr. Benjamin Ferko successfully defended his PhD dissertation titled “Solvent-Swollen Nanostructured Ionomers for Enhanced Lithium-Ion Conductivity” on April 15, 2026 to his committee, Dr. Amalie Frischknecht, Prof. Chinedum Osuji, and Prof. Eric Stach. Ben leaves a legacy of instrument expertise. He was responsible for the maintenance of the LRSM X-ray scattering facility, pioneered the installation of a new glove box, and designed instrument attachments for the DEXS and EIS that will be used in the Winey lab (and potentially others!) for years to come. Not only was Ben a focused researcher and an invaluable resource to the MSE department, he was a wonderful friend to the group and will be sorely missed. We wish Ben the best in the next step in his career at as a research scientist at Greene Tweed!
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Designs for Environmental Chambers for Characterizing Solvent-Swollen Thin Films Published in Review of Scientific Instruments.
Our group has previously designed environmental chambers for collecting X-ray scattering data from bulk samples under controlled temperatures and humidities, and this design has facilitated development of structure-property relationships in hydrated materials. In this work, we expand on this previous development by reporting designs for environmental chambers for grazing incidence X-ray scattering and broadband dielectric spectroscopy on thin films exposed to controlled water- or solvent-vapor environments. These environmental chambers permit characterization of the morphologies, compositions, dielectric relaxations, and ionic conductivities of thin films at temperature and under controlled conditions. We demonstrate the utility of these environmental chambers using three example polymeric systems with various film thicknesses, morphologies, and solvents. Our group hopes to utilize these designs to investigate how solvent-swelling can be used to improve ion transport in nanostructured materials.
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Investigation of Ion Transport in Aligned Thin Films Published in Chemistry of Materials.
Continuing our collaboration with Prof. Stefan Mecking at the University of Konstanz, this work investigates the combination of solvent swelling and domain alignment in a multiblock copolymer with layered nanostructures. We previously demonstrated that solvent swelling in a multiblock copolymer can increase in the ionic conductivity by several orders of magnitude. Here, we investigate solvent swelling in aligned thin films and find that chain conformations and domain alignment can impact the quantity of solvent incorporated within nanostructures. This dependence directly impacts the resulting ionic conductivities. We are excited to use these insights for future development of solvent-swollen nanostructured polymers for enhanced lithium-ion conductivities.
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Sam Chen receives the CBE Outstanding Service Award!
Congratulations to Sam and the Chemical and the two other Biomolecular Engineering Graduate Student Association (ChEGA) co-presidents on their Outstanding Service Awards. We are proud of Sam for giving back to the engineering community. The award ceremony will take place on Wednesday, May 13, at 3:00 PM in Heilmeier Hall, Towne Building.
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Congratulations to our outstanding undergraduate researchers on their prize-winning senior design projects!
Anthony Senouillet and his teammates were awarded the 3rd place Molstad/Seider prize for their CBE senior design project titled “Polyethylene Upcycling to Value-Added Surfactant Alcohols for a Circular Economy”.
Will McCambridge, Phillip Delikouras and Sunehra Chowdhury recieved the “Social Impact” award for their MSE senior design project “PolyGraft: Upcycling Polypropylene Through Reactive Extrusion”. Check out their promotional video here. They are one of three senior design teams to progress to the MSE competition. Wishing them the best in the next round!
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Congratulations on your election into the National Academy of Engineering, Prof. Winey!
We are so thrilled to celebrate Karen’s election into the National Academy of Engineering and to see her achievements recognized by such a prestigious organization. Karen has such a wealth of scientific knowledge, depth of understanding and breadth of interests that make her an expert researcher known around the world and a fantastic principal investigator. We are so thankful for the opportunity to learn from Karen and work to make her ideas reality in the lab. She has made a great impact on our scientific development, and we are so proud to acknowledge her impact on the whole scientific community.
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Dye Extraction from Polyester Fabrics — A Major Step Toward Recycling
While I was on sabbatical at NREL, I had the opportunity to learn more about NREL’s many efforts to reduce plastic waste. In this new paper in Nature Sustainability, Minjung Lee, Kat Knauer and the rest of the NREL team developed a method to extract dyes from polyester fabrics to make the fabrics easier to recycle. As an added bonus, the dyes can also be separated and reused. Eli Fastow and I provided structural characterization to further support their hypothesis that their dye extraction method does not perturb the crystalline structure. I’m looking forward to seeing how this method will be applied!
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NSF DMR Polymers grant awarded!
We are thankful to NSF for a new DMR Polymers grant that will fund research on nanoscale morphologies and solvent-enhanced cation transport in ionomers for 3 years starting on August 1, 2025. This research effort aims to understand to what extent nanoscale morphologies and selective solvents promote cation transport and the underlying mechanisms of cation transport. The proposed research combines structural characterization, conductivity measurements, and spectroscopy measurements on unique polymers to further develop the understanding and demonstration of decoupled ion motion in polymer electrolytes. Aim 1 endeavors to achieve the double gyroid morphology in strictly alternating multiblock copolymers near room temperature. We will investigate a variety of multiblock copolymers and processing strategies to determine the criteria for producing the double gyroid morphology in multiblock copolymers with strongly segregated and short blocks. Aim 2 will identify solvent attributes that promote Li+ and Na+ transport in polymers with aligned nanoscale layered morphologies. To eliminate the effect of morphological orientation and grain boundaries on transport in periodic nanoscale morphologies, we will fabricate thin films with aligned layers in strictly alternating multiblock copolymers and measure the in-plane conductivity as a function of solvent swelling and solvent type. Finally, Aim 3 seeks to improve ion transport in polymers with network morphologies by the addition of solvent. For this portion of the proposed project, we will study three types of partially sulfonated polymers that self-assemble into nanoscale ionic channels without long-range order. This broader range of polymers will test the applicability of our findings about solvent-enhanced ion transport in a variety of nanostructured polymers. In addition to providing exceptional opportunities for student education, this proposal will develop an environmental chamber for grazing incident X-ray scattering and provide professional development workshops for doctoral students.
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Prof. Winey and Hoda Shokrollahzadeh Behbahani attend the Gordon Research Conference in New Hampshire
Karen Winey and Hoda ShokrollahzadehBehbahani attended the 2025 Gordon Research Conference on Plastics Recycling and Upcycling at Southern New Hampshire University. Hoda presented a poster showcasing her research, and the conference was full of exciting talks and posters that highlighted the latest breakthroughs in the field. It was a fantastic opportunity to connect with many brilliant people and engage in thought-provoking discussions about the future of polymer recycling and upcycling.