Our Research

We design and create high-performance membranes that enable unprecedented purification opportunities.

Imagine having separation tools that can capture target molecules in a complex environment with precision. Picture those tools flowing in a patient’s body removing unwanted toxins in real-time, scrubbing CO2 from the air to reverse climate change, and filtering the most dangerous radionuclides in spilled waste to protect lives on earth.

We pursue fundamental breakthroughs that translate into real-world applications, always seeking to bridge the microscopic understanding of materials with macroscopic performance.

Separating molecules is and will continue to be a backbone of modern society, allowing us to provide healthy food, drinking water, and clean energy for a growing population. Our goal is to make separations systems cleaner, stronger, and more sustainable.

Unique approaches we take

  • Charged membranes for sustainability

     Charged polymer membranes are of great interest in clean technologies for sustainability due to their tunable transport properties. Designing new innovative charged polymers for clean technologies is highly dependent on the mechanistic understanding of water and ion transport in these materials. To achieve this goal, we have designed a systematic library of weak polyelectrolyte membranes  and aim to develop a mechanistic understanding of water and ion transport in charged polymer membranes.

  • Universal platform for ion-selective separations

    Biology is adept at separating molecules based on their size and interactions; however, we have yet to reproduce this ability for molecular recognition in engineered membranes. Our goal is to design biomimetic, engineered membranes that can precisely separate ions of similar charge and valence, and establish a new “molecular recognition”. To achieve this goal, we design a modular, universal polymer membrane platform to address long-standing questions about ion selectivity in polymers and will establish the design principles that are central to achieving breakthroughs in ion-selective separations.

  • Membrane platform to solve big health challenges

    We aim to design highly-selective biosponge polymer platform to separate and transport target molecules in the body. This research can fundamentally advance our understanding of highly selective polymers for bioadsorption. We aim to  identify new innovative polymers and processing methods for separation, packaging, and delivery of molecules and biologics in the body. This new engineered polymer platform can produce advanced tools to study and manipulate biology and facilitate biomedical research.

Featured Project

Weak polyelectrolyte membranes with a wide ion-exchange capacity (IEC) range and limited water swelling in clean technologies for sustainability

We have designed a systematic library of weak polyelectrolyte membranes: crosslinked acrylic acid –poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (AA-PEGDA) networks, with a wide range of ion-exchange capacity (IEC = 0 ~ 4 meq/g) and limited water swelling (0.07 – 0.69). This system offers an opportunity to investigate water and ion transport using the same chemical structure, for the first time.

Featured Project

Design of universal nanostructured polymer membrane platform for ion-selective separations

Governing mechanisms for ion selectivity in polymers are still under debate, and design principles have not yet been established. Basic knowledge and databases are largely underdeveloped in ion-selective polymers. No polymer membranes exist for monovalent ion (Li+/Na+) separations. To overcome this challenge, we design a modular, universal polymer membrane platform to address long-standing questions about ion selectivity in polymers and will establish the design principles that are central to achieving breakthroughs in ion-selective separations.

Featured Project

Design of 3D transformable biosponge polymer platform to capture unwanted toxins in the body

Although there have been enormous efforts to develop targeted and personalized therapeutics, dosing of chemotherapy drugs is limited by toxic side effects. More than 90% of an injected drug is not trapped in the target organ and enters general circulation, causing toxicities at distant locations. Because of the severe toxicities in untrapped drugs and their byproducts, every year 100-150 candidate chemotherapy drugs fail in Phase Ⅱ and Phase Ⅲ. The proposed biosponge polymer platform can capture and remove untrapped toxic chemotherapy drugs and their byproducts before they spread through the body, enabling drug immobilization with precision.

At the Oh Lab, we are dedicated to solving the most challenging problems of our time with advanced membrane separation tools.

We work at the intersection of chemical engineering, materials science, and molecular transport, focusing on designing advanced polymer membranes for efficient chemical separation.