Lawrence LabLouisiana State University

Precision polymer engineering

Polymers without the average.

We build polymers one molecule at a time, then use that precision to control structure: at surfaces, on nanoparticles, and in imaging agents.

Cain Department of Chemical Engineering
Louisiana State University

Discrete bottlebrush (DBP). Every molecule identical.

Approach

A conventional polymer sample is a mixture of many different molecules. Whatever you measure is an average over that mixture.

So we make samples in which every molecule is the same. Change one feature of the structure, and we can measure what that feature alone does.

Disperse

Diblock

Discrete

Uniform side chains let bottlebrushes align. Three bottlebrush monolayers compressed at the air–water interface. Disperse and diblock brushes pack without order, and discrete brushes align. Coarse-grained molecular dynamics courtesy of the Peters group, Louisiana Tech University. Shown at 2× speed.

01

Create precise polymeric building blocks

02

Understand structure and property relationships in complex polymers

03

Design multifunctional biomaterials and nanomaterials

Active work
Molecular models of bottlebrush polymers.
01

Topologically precise bottlebrush polymers

With backbone and side-chain lengths fixed, we can change topology one feature at a time.

02

Metal-free 19F MRI contrast agents

Architecture governs imaging performance more than fluorine content does. No gadolinium.

03

Templated synthesis and automated separation

Recycling preparative SEC isolates single-species oligomers on a multigram scale.

Rendered bottlebrush polymers assembling at an interface.
04

Polymeric surfactants and surface modifiers

Side-chain sequence and flexibility set how a chain behaves at an interface.

Spectra and electron micrographs of polymer-coated nanoparticles in two solvents.
05

Tunable nanoparticles

Ligand architecture controls how particles organize and what they do.

Strategies to set the glass transition temperature of bottlebrush polymers: exact side-chain and backbone lengths, precision blends and multiblock topology.
06

Programming the glass transition

Side-chain length, backbone length and blending set Tg, so we can dial it in without changing the chemistry.

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All publications

Each with a link to the journal.
The group
The Lawrence Lab group at LSU.

A postdoc, six PhD students and three undergraduates work in the lab.

Meet the group →Join us →

Support

Funding

  • National Science Foundation
  • National Institutes of Health
  • ACS Petroleum Research Fund
  • Albemarle Foundation
  • Louisiana Board of Regents
  • LSU College of Engineering
  • BASF Sustainable Living Laboratory

With thanks

  • Japan Analytical IndustryPreparative chromatography
  • TosohSize-exclusion chromatography

For technical advice and for supporting the conferences we organize.