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  3. Polymer Science

Polymer Science

Investigating polymers through a variety of fundamental scientific problems with real-world impact—from designing and creating new advanced materials to improving industrial processes to creating sustainable soft materials for an increasingly circular economy

Woman wearing protective eyeglasses operates the Brillouin scattering spectroscopy with a green laser in the Light Scattering Laboratory at IAMM.
Detail of a sample being prepared for the Empyrean XRD diffractometer in the Diffraction Core Facility for a research photo created on January 19, 2023. Photo by Steven Bridges/University of Tennessee.
Overhead view of the Dynamic Light Scattering system with a red laser in the Light Scattering Laboratory at IAMM on January 18, 2023. Photo by Steven Bridges/University of Tennessee.
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Polymer Science has implications for the fundamental understanding and design of novel polymeric materials for various current and future technologies—from gas separations and carbon capture to 3D printing and plastics upcycling.

UT’s world-class, interdisciplinary polymer science research merges chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, biosystems engineering, forestry, biomedical engineering, and veterinary medicine.

Our faculty and students concentrate efforts in diverse areas to tackle some of the most critical grand challenges facing society today, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, creating a circular plastics economy focused on sustainability, advancing additive manufacturing techniques and materials, and advancing regenerative therapies.

UT houses premier academic laboratories for characterizing polymers in terms of molecular weight, molecular weight distribution, conformation, size, and thermal properties. These capabilities serve a wide range of users from across the UT campus, as well as external users from industry and national laboratories.

Detail of glass tubes holding color liquids in the Polymer Characterization Laboratory.

UT’s Approach

UT researchers are developing new methods to aid recycling of waste plastics, improve the properties of new products and materials made from mixed plastic waste streams, and enhance the circular plastics economy. Polymer electrolytes are studied and applied for use in new generations of solid-state batteries and other energy storage technologies.

Researchers are also studying and developing new synthetic materials to create advanced gas separation membranes that will enable energy efficient and cost-effective separation of greenhouse gasses and reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions.

Partnering with scientists from the College of Veterinary Medicine and the UT Medical Center, novel polymeric materials to revolutionize regenerative therapies in animals and humans are being developed, integrating materials science, biomedical research and practical medicine.

Highlights

Eastman Center Opens

At the Eastman Innovation Center on the UT campus, faculty and students are collaborating on projects with far-reaching economic and environmental impact, including the development of next-generation structural and functional materials that are sustainable for use in a variety of applications including automotive manufacturing.

Read about the Eastman Center ribbon cutting.

New Process Could Strengthen 3D-Printed Materials

Scientists at UT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a new technique using UV irradiation that could strengthen bonds of 3D-printed materials to withstand 200 percent more transverse stress.

Read about the new technique.

A golden drop of liquid dangles at the end of a syringe inside a clear test tube.
Ali Biery, a post-doc, works with test tubes in the Polymer Characterization Laboratory.

Facilities & Initiatives

UT houses one of the world’s premier polymer characterization laboratories dedicated toward molecular weight, molecular weight distribution, conformation, size, and thermal properties, and is internationally renowned for developing and improving bioenergy sources, biorefinery processes, bioproducts, and biomaterials.

  • Center for Renewable Carbon
  • Polymer Characterization Lab
Detail of glass tubes holding color liquids for a research photo created in the Polymer Characterization Laboratory on January 19, 2023. Photo by Steven Bridges/University of Tennessee.

Talent

  • Rigoberto Advincula.

    Rigoberto Advincula

    UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair for Advanced & Nanostructured Materials

    Polymers, nanoscience, macromolecule science and engineering, organic materials, hybrid materials, ultrathin films

  • David Anderson.

    David Anderson

    Associate Dean for Research, Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine

    Biochemistry and cell biology, animal production, veterinary sciences, biomedical engineering, biomaterials, chemical engineering, food sciences, materials engineering, regenerative medicine, clinical sciences, pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences

  • John Brantley.

    John Brantley

    Assistant Professor, Chemistry

    Addressing chemical problems at the interface of materials science and synthetic methodology

  • Brett Compton.

    Brett Compton

    Associate Professor, Mechanical, Aerospace & Biomedical Engineering

    Developing new high-performance materials for additive manufacturing technologies, printable fiber-reinforced polymer and ceramic matrix composites, multi-material hybrid structures

  • Mark Dadmun.

    Mark Dadmun

    Professor, Chemistry

    Organic photovoltaics and conjugated polymers, nanocomposites and block copolymers, lignin and renewable polymers

  • Computer illustration of a human wearing a lab coat with a power T the pocket.

    Madhu Dhar

    Research Professor, Large Animal Clinical Sciences

    Advancing regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, cell-based therapies for treatment of disease

  • Emmanouil Doxastakis.

    Manolis Doxastakis

    Associate Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

    Polymer melts, blends and nanocomposites, association of biomolecules in membrane environments, reaction-diffusion phenomena in patterning applications, development of novel algorithms for multiscale modeling, computational characterization of materials coupled to scattering experiments

  • Chad Duty.

    Chad Duty

    Professor, Mechanical, Aerospace & Biomedical Engineering

    Additive manufacturing of polymer and composite structures, new material development, melt flow characterization, optimizing process-structure-property relationships, tooling applications for large-scale additive manufacturing

  • David Harper.

    David Harper

    Professor, School of Natural Resources

    Carbon materials, natural fiber composites, composite processing, biopolymers, adhesion, rheology, thermal analysis, kinetic modeling, mechanics

  • Bin Hu.

    Bin Hu

    Professor, Materials Science & Engineering

    Magnetic studies of exciton-exciton and exciton-charge interactions in organic light-emitting and photovoltaic devices, magnetic control of constructive and non-constructive excited state and charge transport processes in organic semiconducting materials, singlet and triplet photovoltaic channels in organic solar cells

  • Bamin Khomami.

    Bamin Khomami

    Granger & Beaman Distinguished University Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

    Structure, dynamics and rheology of complex fluids and soft matte biohybrid energy harvesting materials; biohybrid materials for next generation quantum simulation and computing; single macromolecular dynamics and biophysics; multiscale modeling and simulation of complex systems; processing science of micro- and nano-structured material; renewable energy and additive manufacturing

  • Michael Kilbey.

    Michael Kilbey

    Associate Head & Professor, Chemistry

    Assembly-structure-property relationships of polymer brushes made by self-assembly and by surface-initiated polymerizations, swelling behavior of stimuli-responsive polymer layers and dynamics of preferential adsorption of amphiphilic block copolymers, surface behavior and characterization of conducting polymer thin films

  • Niki Labbe.

    Niki Labbe

    Professor & Assistant Director, Center for Renewable Carbon

    Novel approaches to deconstruct lignocellulosic biomass and fabricate bio-based products, high throughput techniques coupled with multivariate statistical analyses for monitoring biomass quality and performance at various scales

  • Brian Long.

    Brian Long

    Associate Professor, Chemistry

    Organic synthesis, polymer chemistry, organometallic design, polymer science and engineering, design and synthesis of functional polymeric materials, development and utilization of next-generation polymerization catalysts

  • Dayakar Penumadu.

    Dayakar Penumadu

    Peebles Professor, IAMM Chair of Excellence, Civil & Environmental Engineering

    Carbon fiber reinforced polymeric composites and sandwich structures, environmental degradation, and multi-scale mechanics, multi-axial stress-strain-time behavior of multi-phase and granular materials, non-invasive characterization and residual stress using neutron and x-ray tomography and diffraction, direct numerical simulations and porous media

  • Arthur Ragauskas.

    Arthur Ragauskas

    UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair for Biorefining

    Chemical engineering, forestry sciences, environmental science and management, materials engineering, analytical chemistry, macromolecular and materials chemistry, organic chemistry, industrial biotechnology, food sciences

  • Alexei Sokolov.

    Alexei Sokolov

    UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair for Polymer Science

    Soft matter, glass transition and polymer dynamics, polymers with dynamic bonds as new recyclable materials, materials for clean energy technologies, membranes for fuel cells and flow batteries, membranes for gas separation, co2 capture and water desalination, dynamics and macroscopic properties of multicomponent polymeric materials, dynamics and functions of proteins and other biological macromolecules.

  • Gila Stein.

    Gila Stein

    Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

    Self-assembly in polymeric systems, physics of confined polymers, thermodynamics of polymer blends, architectural design of polymers, lithographic materials, coatings, thin film membranes, x-ray scattering methods

  • Uday Vaidya.

    Uday Vaidya

    UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair for Advanced Composites Manufacturing

    Composites manufacturing, design and product development, concept to part, recycling and sustainable technologies, , hybrids, engineered plastics and high performance materials

  • Thomas Zawodzinski.

    Thomas Zawodzinski

    UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair for Electrical Energy Conversion & Storage

    Electrolytes and composite electrodes for fuel cells, fundamentals of energy storage materials and systems, water management in fuel cells, application of NMR to chemical engineering problems

  • Bin Zhao.

    Bin Zhao

    Professor, Chemistry

    Responsive, functional organic, and organic-inorganic hybrid materials

See all Polymer Science Faculty

Institute for Advanced Materials & Manufacturing

2641 Osprey Vista Way
Knoxville, TN 37920
865-974-8428
iamm@utk.edu

Research Areas
Advanced Materials,
Advanced Manufacturing,
Materials for Extremes,
Polymer Science, &
Quantum Materials

UT Research supports five gateways defining the university’s strategic priorities—the Institute for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing is one of them. Find out about the other four gateways here.
The university is committed to recruiting top-tier faculty members across multiple disciplines who are interested in addressing the nation’s greatest challenges. Learn more about the Cluster Hire Initiatives.
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Knoxville, Tennessee 37996
865-974-1000

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