Materials Chemistry

The Chemistry Department plays a central role in creating advanced materials and composites that address real-world challenges and opportunities such as energy conversion, flexible electronics, drug delivery, and sustainability.
The synthesis and analysis of novel materials employ many of the same experimental methods used in inorganic, organic, and physical chemistry. Our graduate program provides flexibility and depth to support interdisciplinary research and training, as well as solid foundations in classical areas of chemistry.
We offer exciting research on nanostructures, polymers and soft materials, self-assembly, surface chemistry, and simulation and theory. State-of-the-art instruments for materials characterization are housed in the Jonathan Amy Center for Chemical Instrumentation, as well as other research centers at Purdue such as the Birck Center for Nanotechnology. Students have access to facilities for chemical imaging by electron microscopy, wide-angle x-ray diffraction analysis, surface metrologies such as AFM and XPS, and a variety of tools for testing electronic, mechanical, and optical properties.
Our Faculty

Justin Andrews
- Solid state materials
- Porous materials
- Electronic materials
- Solid state electrochemistry

Jean Chmielewski
- Peptide Biomaterials
- Regenerative Medicine
- Protein-protein Interactions

Qi (Tony) Dong
- Energy and sustainability
- Nanomaterials and nanotechnology
- Heterogeneous catalysis

Letian Dou
- Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Materials
- Optoelectronics and Photonics
- Recyclable Polymers

Libai Huang
- Ultrafast Microscopy
- Energy Transport
- Charge Transport

Christina Li
- Nanocrystal Catalysts
- Defect Chemistry
- C-H activation and CO2 absorption

Hanzhe Liu
- Charge and Energy transfer
- Quantum materials
- Nanomaterials

Chengde Mao
- DNA Nanotechnology
- Self-assembly
- Biosensing/nanomedicine

Jianguo Mei
- Organic and Polymer Synthesis
- Flexible Electronics and Bioelectronics
- Electrochemical Devices

Tong Ren
- Conjugated Organometallic Compounds
- Coordination Compounds
- Electronic and Optoelectronic Materials

Garth Simpson
- Pharmaceutical Materials
- Materials Analysis
- Macromolecule Assemblies

David Thompson
- Drug Delivery Materials
- Elastin-like Polypeptides
- Polyrotaxanes
- Affinity Capture Templates for CryoEM

Christopher Uyeda
- Catalytic Polymerizations
- Conjugated Polymers
- Photoactive and Electroactive Materials

Alexander Wei
- Photoluminescent compounds
- Nanocellulose-based plastics
- Low-cost wireless sensors