Chenfeng Ke
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Chemistry
Plastics, gels, rubbers and porous filters are built from molecules linked into networks. The way those links are arranged sets how strong, stretchy, selective or easy to shape a material is.
- Fields
Chemistry
Materials Science
Engineering
- Topics
porous organic frameworks
hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks
macrocycles
- Grants
- 3 known grants, through Aug 2028
What they work on
- Construct HCOFs from rigid macrocycles and organic cages with built-in recognition sites to selectively bind molecules of similar size and control solid-state assembly.
- Apply crosslinking chemistries such as azide-alkyne cycloaddition, olefin metathesis and photodimerization to HCOF crystals, and study reversible expansion and contraction in a single-crystal-to-single-crystal manner.
- Stabilize expanded HCOFs after solvent removal to create enlarged channels for high-capacity, selective adsorption and fast molecular transport.
- Synthesize precision polysaccharides by living cationic ring-opening polymerization (CROP) of anhydrosugars and map how repeating units, side chains and molecular weight set material properties.
- Develop double-threaded slide-ring polymers, dynamic covalent networks and double networks that are stretchable and self-healing, guided by molecular dynamics, high-throughput synthesis and machine learning.
- Use extrusion-based 3D printing to test the mechanics and manufacturability of sugar-based copolymers and adaptive polymer networks.
More about the research
Designing networks that break the usual tradeoffs is the common goal of this research. Examples include porous solids that both sort near-identical molecules and hold a lot of them, polymers that are tough, stiff and printable at once, and plastics made from sugars with precisely controlled structure.
Why it matters
Porous frameworks that capture molecules selectively and in large amounts could improve water and air purification and make chemical separations use less energy. Precision sugar-based polymers could provide renewable materials for packaging, healthcare and agriculture. Tough, self-healing, printable polymers could serve wearable sensors, soft actuators and energy-harvesting devices.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Hierarchically Porous and Dynamic Hydrogen-Bonded Crosslinked Organic Frameworks
NSF · Sep 2025 – Aug 2028
Collaborative Research: Precision Polysaccharide-Based Soft Materials
NSF · Jun 2024 – May 2028
Collaborative Research: DMREF: Closed-Loop Design of Polymers with Adaptive Networks for Extreme Mechanics
NSF · Jan 2024 – Sep 2027
Closest labs
Ying Yang
University of Nevada-Reno, NV·Chemistry·Early-career
Work out how initiators and catalysts control the ring-opening polymerization of dithioacetal macrocycles (sulfur-containing ring molecules), with the goal of achieving controlled "living" cationic polymerization.
Brent Sumerlin
University of Florida, FL·Chemistry
Develop pendant squarate esters as a new catalyst-free bond-exchange chemistry for vitrimers, reshapable crosslinked polymers that flow when heated.
Gannon Jennings
Vanderbilt University, TN·Engineering
Identify, synthesize and test new polymer membranes that separate water from polar organic solvents by pervaporation, using ring-opening metathesis polymerization and spin coating.
The school
Washington University in St Louis: 97 labs on PI Pages, $1.2B a year on research, 365 research doctorates a year.
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