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Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
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Soft Matter and Advanced Materials

Overview

Rutgers CBE researchers work on a wide range of advanced materials and soft matter, designing new materials at the molecular level that offer needed capabilities for applications spanning from biomedicine and biotechnology, alternative and renewable energy, sustainability, nanoelectronics, sensing, and imaging, to personal care, pharmaceuticals and biosafety.

Faculty

Tewodros (Teddy) Asefa, Fuat Celik, Shishir ChundawatGregory DignonMeenakshi Dutt, Ashley GuoAlexander Neimark, Benjamin Schuster, Nina ShapleySilvina Tomassone

Research Topics

·    Nanostructured and nanoporous materials
·    Organic-inorganic hybrid materials
·    Nanobiomaterials
·    Bio-inspired materials
·    Hierarchical protein assemblies
·    Intrinsically disordered proteins
·    Membraneless organelles
·    Biomolecular phase separation
·    Nanophase equilibria and transitions

Research Clusters

Nanomaterials

We design, synthesize, and characterize novel nanoporous and nanostructured materials, self-assembling organic and soft matter systems, bio-inspired composite systems, and nanoparticulates that enable targeted delivery of cancer drugs, development of highly efficient solar cells, catalysis of biopharmaceutical and clean energy reactions, protection from chemical and biological terrorism, and aid in understanding viral infection risks and therapies.

Faculty: Asefa, Neimark, Shapley, Tomassone

Biomolecular Materials

Faculty: Asefa, Chundawat, Dignon, Dutt, Guo, Schuster

We use complementary experimental and computational approaches to discover, design, and manipulate the structure and function of biomolecular materials for application in healthcare, personal care, biocatalysis, biomanufacturing, and biopharmaceuticals. CBE faculty work on materials ranging from nanostructured biomaterials to mesoscale self-organizing protein and-lipid based soft materials.

Molecular Discovery and Design

Faculty: Dignon, Dutt, Guo, Neimark

The discovery and design of materials is greatly accelerated by information gained from computational studies at the molecular level, along with high-throughput screening techniques, enhanced sampling, deep learning, and data-driven methods. We use these to explore new materials to meet therapeutic, electronic, environmental, and biopharmaceutical needs.