Congratulations!

Neha Manohar: Will start her PhD in chemical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in fall 2014.

Mark Lalli : Started his PhD in chemical engineering at Northeastern University (Asagiri Group) in fall 2013.

Other highlights

Laura Fuentes and Marisely De Jesus Vega: Both successfully compteted their REU summer internships in 08/2011 (UML Research Experience for Undergraduates REU program). Laura developed smart coatings for parachute canopy applications (Army), and Marisely developed chemiresistor vapor sensors to detect chemical warfare agents.

Sumedh Surwade: Successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis on synthesis of nanostrucured polyaniline on 04/09/2010. Sumedh accomplished this milestone in record time (~3 yrs) and has 10 publications in print with 6 more to follow. He will post-doc in Dr. Haitao Liu's group at the University of Pittsburgh.

Vineet Dua: Successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis on organic vapor sensing using organic electronic materials on 10/05/2010. Vineet was in the group for only 2 years but has co-authored 5 publications.

Sujit Jain: Successfully defended his MS thesis on green synthesis and applications of polyaniline on 12/09/2009. Sujit was prolific in the group with 4 publications including one first author paper in Green Chemistry. He has joined Genzyme.

Ernesto Pereira, Rashmi Kulkarni Bhintade: Manuscript on polyaniline impedance studies published in Electrochemica Acta (01/29/2010). This is our first US/Brazil joint paper.

Vineet Dua, Sumedh Surwade, Srikanth Ammu: Manuscript on graphene sensors published in Angewandte Chemie (01/15/2010).

Sumedh Surwade, Srikanth Agnihotra, Neha Manohar: manuscript published in Journal of the American Chemical Society (11/2009).

Vineet Dua, Sumedh Surwade: Manuscript on polythiophene nanofibers published in Macromolecules (10/2009).

Sumedh Surwade: Manuscript on mechanism of nanofiber formation published in Macromolecules (09/2009).

Sumedh Surwade, Srikanth Agnihotra: Manuscript on poly-o-toluidine sensors published in Sensors and Actuators B (09/2009).

Sumedh Surwade: Manuscript on oligoanilines published in Synthetic Metals (07/2009).

Mark Lalli, Neha Manohar: First poster presentation at the ACS regional meeting in Hartfrod, CT. This was Mark's research carried out the summer before his freshman year at UML and Neha's high school summer research internship (junior and senior year, Nashua High School South) (07/2009).

Sumedh Surwade and Erling Beck's oligoaniline paper published in Synthetic Metals (December 2008, see publications).

Vineet Dua and Srikanth Ammu develop a reversible, room temperature carbon-based vapor sensor for nitrogen dioxide, chlorine and sulfur dioxide (November 2008).

Sujit Jain develops a new surface finish for printed circuit boards using a green chemistry approach (October 2008).

Kyle Roberts and Kyle Cattanach have developed a method to inkjet print films of single walled carbon nanotubes on any flexible substrates. See image of Gandhi (left) printed with a water based electronic ink containing single walled carbon nanotubes.

Our joint UMass-Lowell/UT-Dallas manuscript on polyaniline nanofibers using hypochlorite published: Chemistry of Materials 2008, ASAP article (July 17, 2008).

Dr. Xinyu Zhang's manuscript on parent polythiophene nanofibers published: Chemistry Letters 2008, 5, 526 (April 2008).

Mr. Chintan Fafadia, Ms. Neerja Saran and Mr. Rashmi Rao's manuscript on polyaniline field effect devices published:Journal of Applied Physics 2008, 103, 094501. Chintan was the group's first graduate student in 2001. (May 2008).

Dr. Kyle Cattanach and Rashmi Kulkarni's manuscript on carbon nanotube sensors for nerve agent detection (Nanotechnology 2006, 17, 4123) downloaded 250 times (top 10%) (09/20/2006).

Dr. Kyle Cattanach and Rashmi Kulkarni's manuscript on carbon nanotube sensors for nerve agent detection published: Nanotechnology 2006, 17, 4123. (07/28/2006).

Our manuscript on nanofiber seeding of polyaniline makes the top 10 list of most cited papers by ISI Science Watch (July 2006 release).

Dr. Xinyu Zhang's manuscript on fibrillar growth in polyaniline published Advanced Functional Materials 2006, 16, 1145. (06/26/2006).

Our 2nd joint publication with AGM Institute in Jilin University, Changchun, China on a general synthesis of two-dimensional patterned conducting polymer-nanobowl sheet via chemical polymerization. Macromolecular Rapid Communications 2006, 27, 771. (06/07/2006)

Dr. Xinyu Zhang's manuscript on microwave synthesis of nanocarbons from conducting polymers published. Chemical Communications 2006, 23, 2477. (05/29/2006).

Sumedh Surwade wins 3rd Prize in 11th Annual Chem-Bio Symposium held on 03/31/2006 in UT-Dallas.

Harsha Kolla's last day in UT-Dallas (03/31/2006). He will join Cytech Technologies in Stamford, CT on 04/03/2006. Harsha joined the group in 04/2003 as a research associate and has been very successful with 4 publications, including 2 communications in J. Am. Chem. Soc. We wish him well in his new adventure, and hope to enter into a fruitful collaboration with Cytech.

Our first joint publication with AGM Institute in Jilin University, Changchun, China: Nanotechnology 2006, 17, 920.

Dr. Xinyu Zhang's manuscript on mechanism of fibrillar growth of polyaniline accepted for publication in the journal Advanced Functional Materials (02/13/2006).

Mr. Kunjal Parikh and Dr. Kyle Cattanach's manuscript on vapor sensing using carbon nanotubes now published: Sens. Actuators, B, 2006, 113, 55. (01/05/2006).

Dr. Xinyu Zhang's manuscript on PEDOT nanotubes now published: Macromolecules, 2006, 39, 470. (01/01/2006).

Dr. Aimei Wu's manuscript on controlled drug release published jointly with UT-SWMC and CEPS, Dharwad, India, now published: Targeted Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery through the Blood-Brain Barrier for Alzheimer's Disease, J. Contr. Rel., 2005, 108, 193. (11/21/2005)

Harsha Kolla & Sumedh Surwade's manuscript on polyaniline published: Absolute Molecular Weight of Polyaniline, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2005, 127, 16770. (11/20/2005)

Mr. Xinyu Zhang is now Dr. Zhang as he successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis on 11/04/2005. Dr. Zhang is our group's first graduate student who joined our group in summer 2002 and obtained his MS degree in Fall 2003. Dr. Zhang's Ph.D. dissertation was on Nanostructured Conducting Polymers and he will be continuing on as a post-doc in the group to investigate polymer metal composites, and a new synthetic approach to carbon nanotubes.

Xinyu Zhang's manuscript on PEDOT nanofibers now published: Chem. Commun., 2005, 42, 5328. (10/26/2005).

Xinyu Zhang's manuscript on polypyrrole nanotubes now published: J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2005, 127, 14156. (10/15/2005).

Xinyu Zhang's manuscript on PEDOT nanofibers was accepted for publication in the journal Chem. Commun. (08/21/2005).

Dr. Aimei Wu's manuscript on surfactant-assisted synthesis of polypyrrole nanofibers now published: Macromolecules, 2005, 38, 7873 (09/29/2005).

Xinyu Zhang wins the prestigious Outstanding Overseas Chinese Student Scholarship award.

Ms. Aimei Wu is now Dr. Wu as she successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis and graduated on August 6, 2005. Aimei is our first Ph.D. student and her research was on surfactant-aided synthesis of nanostructured polypyrrole and poly(butylcyanoacrylate). Aimei has decided to stay on as a post-doc to work on hydrogen storage and polyazanes.

Mr. Kyle Cattanach is now Dr. Cattanach as he too successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis last July. Kyle is our second Ph.D. student and his research was on using single-walled carbon nanotube sensors to detect organic vapors, including chemical warfare agent simulants. Kyle will start his industrial career in Advanced Concepts and Technologies International in Waco, TX, and will work on developing aqueous analyte sensors. He too, plans to be affiliated with the group as our collaboration with ACT-I evolves.

IN MEMORY OF DR. GABRIEL ENRIQUE ASTURIAS-SOBERANIS

The group recognizes the contributions of Dr. Gabriel Asturias in the polyaniline area. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania under the guidance of the late Professor Alan G. MacDiarmid. Unfortunately, he passed away prematurely in 1996 before his work could get proper recognition.

Gabriel Asturias showed for the first time that aniline could be polymerized in the presence of polymeric acids, like polystyrenesulfonic acid or polyvinylsulfonic acid to yield water soluble doped polyaniline that remains conducting even at high pH. Collaborative research with Professor Howard Reiss showed that this was related to Donnan equilibria. This very important work (often forgotten) was published in 1991. See also J. Chem. Phys., 98(3), 1 1993 (see ref 1,2). Several groups have expanded on this concept of using polymeric dopants in conducting polymers.

Gabriel was a friend and colleague of Dr. Manohar. They were fellow graduate students in 1987-1992.