New renewable energy and water treatment technologies require functional materials with tailored properties. We study molecular-level interactions and molecular assembly in soft and hybrid materials to develop new insights into the connections between chemical structure and performance. Ultimately, this will accelerate design of new fit-for-purpose materials, for example, polymer membranes for fuel cells or water filtration devices.
Our work is interdisciplinary and highly collaborative. We leverage the unique facilities at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL), including the Advanced Light Source and the Molecular Foundry, and collaborate closely with groups at LBNL, UC Berkeley, and externally that specialize in materials synthesis, theory, and transport.
06/09/2025
Welcome interns Akhila Rajesh and Adar Ambar! We are thrilled to have you with us this summer!
04/05/2025
Greg is selected as a recipient of the 2025 ACS PMSE Early Investigator Award!
01/07/2025 - Two new publications from our collaborations are out! Check out work on understanding dopant distribution in conjugated polymers and nanocomposites.
12/09/2024 - Congrats to Kelvin, who passed his qualifying exam!
10/09/2024 - Greg receives the 2024 Director's Award for Exceptional Early Scientific Career Achievement from Berkeley Lab!
09/03/2024 - Welcome José! José joins us as a Collaborative ALS Postdoctoral Fellow. He will be working within M-WET on charged polymer membranes and is co-advised with Prof. Benny Freeman at UT Austin. José received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan, working with Prof. Jovan Kamcev.
08/20/2024 - Greg gives an invited talk at the 2024 ACS Fall Meeting in Denver, CO as part of a symposium titled "Interfacial Phenomena & Dynamics in Electrochemical Systems" within the Division of Colloid & Surface Chemistry.
08/13/2024 - Matt presents a poster, and Sophie, Greg, and others from the ALS organize a workshop, "Coherent X-ray Science: The New Wave" at the 2024 ALS User Meeting!
08/09/2024 - We wrapped up a great summer internship with André, Noah, and Ty! Best of luck in the upcoming semester and looking forward to future programs in the coming years!
07/21/2024 - Jonathan & Greg attend and present posters at the 2024 Polymer Physics Gordon Research Conference!
04/15/2024 - Our work, Led by Jonathan and Sintu, using tender resonant x-ray scattering to reveal the mesoscale morphology in PFSA membranes is published in ACS Appl. Polym. Mater.!
04/04/2024 - Our collaboration, led by the Prendergast group, is published in PCCP! This theoretical study helps reveal why the L-edge spectra in late transition metals exhibit absorption onsets at lower energy for higher oxidation states.
06/02/2023 - Recent work in collaboration with the Salmeron group and others shows graphene-suspension of thin films can minimize x-ray beam damage.
05/23/2023 - Check out our paper, led by Matt Landsman, on Membrane fouling mechanisms elucidated via synchrotron techniques!
12/01/2022 - Metal-like charge transport in PEDOT(OH) films via side chain removal out now in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.! Led by our collaborators at Georgia Tech.