Polystyrene Upcycling: Turning styrofoam boxes into organic batteries

Pleased to see our latest Research Article on commodity polystyrene upcycling out in ChemSusChem! In this joint effort between my team and my long-time collaborators in Spain (the groups of Prof. David Mecerreyes and Prof. Haritz Sardon), we show that styrofoam food containers can be chemically upcycled into redox polymer electrode materials for metal-free organic batteries.

Article link: https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.202500092

Polymer electrets for organic nonvolatile memory devices

Our joint review article with Prof. Cheng-Liang Liu (National Taiwan University) on polymer electrets is now out in Materials Today Chemistry. Polymer electrets are organic materials that are capable of trapping electronic charge; this property is key to their application in information storage. Find out how they work and learn about their chemistry! 

Share link: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1k5BA8nHhtOvC1

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtchem.2024.102380

Turning waste polystyrene into antimicrobial materials

Our research work on transforming used Styrofoam food boxes into antimicrobial polymers is now out in ACS Applied Polymer Materials:

 

 
A big shout-out to the project team: Algin and Michelle for their synthetic skills and perseverance, Wenguang's prowess with instruments and characterization, Li Ning's biomedical expertise and figure-making artistry, and He-Kuan's practical creativity.

Read our article here.

Review on perovskite solar cells -- Solar RRL

My second collaborative publication with Prof. Cheng-Liang Liu's group from the National Taiwan University is now out in Solar RRL (impact factor: 8.582). Great working with his team again after more than 2 years!

Read the article here.

2019 Ontario Early Researcher Award (ERA)

Proud to be the recipient of Ontario's 2019 Early Researcher Award (ERA)!

This is a prestigious provincial award granted annually to early-career Principal Investigators (PIs) based on their independent research accomplishments.

Our collaborative work with Xia et al.

Our collaborative research on push-pull dyes with the Xia Group (Chinese Academy of Sciences) has just been accepted in Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.

Read the article here.

We just made the Inside Front Cover of J. Mater. Chem. C !

 

Reference:  Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 2019, 7, 7865-7871  [Link to article]

Winning the New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF)

I have been awarded the inaugural NFRF, which carries research funding of > $228K CAD. Very grateful to the Tri-Agency (SSHRC, NSERC, CIHR) for this generous grant. Synopsis of my research proposal:

Prof. Julian Chan, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science

"Probing Novel Molecular Designs for Organic Excitonic Superconductors"

The discovery of new materials that conduct electricity without resistance — and thus without power loss — would revolutionize the way we transmit, store and use energy. Dr. Julian Chan and his team are exploring novel chemistries to create exotic organic molecular structures that exhibit superconductivity at high temperatures.

[Official press release]  [University of Ottawa media release]

Pentafluorosulfanylated Polymer Electrets in OFET Memory Devices

Our paper on the use of SF5-functionalized polymers as electrets in nonvolatile OFET memory devices is now out in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C.  [Read it here]

Bismuth Thiolate Coordination Polymers with CT Contrast Properties

Congratulations to my Ph.D. student, Guoxian, who published his second paper as first author, this time in ACS Applied Bio Materials. This new work discusses the synthesis of bismuth thiolate network polymers with computed tomography (CT) contrast properties. [Link to article]

Pentafluorosulfanyl acceptors for enhancing two-photon absorption

Prabhat's research on our new two-photon dyes has just been published in Chemistry of Materials! [Link to article]

Reversibly thermochromic material from the Chan Lab

  

Material synthesized by Guoxian Zhang. Video credit: Janire Matas

Chan Research Group - University of Ottawa (Chemistry)

I am an Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Ottawa. I am also the principal investigator of a research group that is working to develop novel functional organic materials. Specifically, we are designing and synthesizing π-conjugated organic molecules and polymers with unique optoelectronic, magnetic, and/or biological properties. Learn more about us at our research website.