Regulating phase separation, transport, and material functions through charge interactions
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Location: Edwin A. Stevens Hall, Room 330
Speaker: Jonathan K. Whitmer, Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering University of Notre Dame
ABSTRACT
Ion interactions play a key role in controlling the behavior of soft materials, with applications ranging from battery energy storage to biological systems. In some applications, we aim to enhance ionic transport to develop high-conductivity materials. In others, we leverage local electrostatic interactions to control molecular assembly and structure. Even subtle changes in charge distribution can produce significant macroscale effects. This seminar will review recent molecular simulation results from my research group, highlighting how charge interaction strength and solvent effects influence these disparate phenomena, focusing specifically on ionic transport in structured electrolyte materials being explored for next-generation batteries, as well as in charged polymers (polyelectrolytes and biopolymers) with many industrial and health applications, including biocatalysis, targeted drug delivery, membrane separations, and elucidating cell biology.
BIOGRAPHY
Jonathan K. Whitmer is an Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Notre Dame with a concurrent appointment in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He holds BS degrees in Math and Physics from Kansas State University and MS and PhD degrees in Physics from the University of Illinois (working with Erik Luijten). He joined Notre Dame in 2014 after postdoctoral appointments at the University of Wisconsin and Argonne National Laboratory. He received an NSF CAREER award in 2018, and his group develops the open source software SSAGES (Software Suite for Advanced General Ensemble Simulations) in collaboration with MICCoM, a DOE Computational Materials Science center located at Argonne National Laboratory.
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