Khanh-Hoa Tran-Ba
Towson University, MD·Chemistry
Poly(ethylene glycol), or PEG, is a widely used polymer. It can be dissolved in water or linked into soft, water-filled gels called hydrogels.
- Fields
Chemistry
Materials Science
Physics
- Topics
poly(ethylene glycol)
PEG diacrylate
hydrogels
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Quantify local diffusion of fluorescent probe beads in an unentangled, semi-dilute poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) solution by varying bead size and PEG concentration, using single-particle tracking on a fluorescence microscope.
- Probe the evolving microstructure of PEG diacrylate in situ during ultraviolet light-induced crosslinking by tracking individual beads, measuring pore sizes and their distribution as the gel forms.
- Distinguish mobile from entrapped particles during gel formation and determine their diffusion mechanisms from individual particle trajectories, without averaging over the ensemble.
More about the research
Many technologies depend on PEG. Their performance depends on its structure at the nanoscale, including how large the spaces between polymer chains are and how small particles move through them. Standard measurements average over huge numbers of particles, which hides local differences.
Why it matters
Hydrogels made from PEG and similar polymers are used in many technologies. Their usefulness depends on their internal pore structure. By showing how pores form and how particles move during ultraviolet-light crosslinking, this work could help researchers better understand and optimize hydrogel materials for the technologies that rely on them.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
You-Yeon Won
Purdue University, IN·Materials Science
Determine how micelle shape controls interfacial mechanics by comparing spherical and cylindrical poly(styrene)-poly(ethylene glycol) micelles spread at the air-water interface, using Langmuir isotherms, X-ray reflectivity, grazing-incidence X-ray scattering, and Brewster angle microscopy.
Preston Snee
University of Illinois Chicago, IL·Chemistry
Synthesize quantum dots with functional organic shells, and modify chromatography stationary phases with complementary DNA strands, to control the attractive (enthalpic) interactions during separation.
William E Moerner
Stanford University, CA·Biophysics
Develop a 3D super-resolution microscope that images over a large depth range using pupil-plane phase patterns and a tilted light sheet, for single-molecule imaging and tracking in living cells.
The school
Towson University: 2 labs on PI Pages, $19M a year on research, 12 research doctorates a year.
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