Sergio Granados-Focil

E-mail:
Phone:  508-793-7375
Office:  S225, Sackler Sciences Center

B.S. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 2000
M.S. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 2001
Ph.D. Case Western Reserve University, 2005
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2005-2008

Current Research Interests:

Our group focuses on better understanding the physico-chemical principles governing charge transport within polymeric matrices and establishing a roadmap towards nano-structured, multifunctional materials with improved ionic conductivity or optoelectronic properties. Renewable energy alternatives, flexible optoelectronic devices and better energy storage are three promising areas that will benefit from tailoring the materials properties via a precise control of their structure at the molecular and supramolecular scales. The interdisciplinary nature of this work allows the students to acquire experience not only in organic or polymer synthetic chemistry, but also in a wide variety of characterization techniques routinely used to study the materials they will prepare. Furthermore, while striving to fully understand and tailor the properties of these new compounds, they will have the opportunity to closely collaborate with their peers from other disciplines working towards the same broad objective.

Three specific research areas will be explored:

1. Proton transport (Fuel Cells and Hydrogen generation): More efficient proton conducting materials using self-assembled block copolymer architectures and nano-confined geometries to generate multifunctional membranes, able to transport protons within hydrated and anhydrous polymer matrices. These new materials will be instrumental in understanding the basic principles governing long range proton transport and will help design membranes exhibiting high conductivity over a wide range of temperature and relative humidity.
    


2. Lithium conduction (Rechargeable batteries): Mechanically robust lithium conducting polymers based on either liquid-crystalline rod coil block copolymers or lithium solvating semi-crystalline polymers containing five-membered heterocycles similar to propylene carbonate, an excellent organic solvent for lithium salts. These materials will be used to explore the key factors necessary for ionic transport within “soft” and “stiff” polymeric matrices. Insights from this study can be used to develop durable, highly conductive polyelectrolytes for lithium-ion batteries.
    


3. Electronic conduction (Solar Cells, Flexible Electronics): Improved semiconducting polymeric materials for optoelectronic applications, particularly photovoltaic systems, via careful control of the semiconducting phase nanostructure. These well defined systems will be used to achieve a better understanding and characterization of charge separation and charge transport within semi-conducting polymeric matrices, essential requirements for the development of photovoltaic devices with increased energy conversion efficiency The photovoltaic effort will be divided into design of polymer structures with tailored electronic properties (charge carrier mobility, band gap, etc.) and development of controlled nano-scale architectures to improve macroscopic charge separation.
   

Selected Publications:

Ümit Akbey, Sergio Granados-Focil, E. Bryan Coughlin, Robert Graf, and Hans Wolfgang Spiess, ¹H Solid-State NMR Investigations of Structure and Dynamics of Anhydrous Proton Conducting Triazole-Functionalized Siloxane Polymers, J. Phys. Chem. B, 2009, 118, 9151-9160. 

Granados-Focil, S., Woudenberg, R.C., Yavuzcetin, O., Tuominen, M.T., Coughlin, E.B., Water-free proton conducting polysiloxanes: A study on the effect of heterocycle structure, Macromolecules, 2007, 40, 8708-8713.

Marwiset, S., Woudenberg, R.C., Granados-Focil, S., Yavuzcetin, O., Tuominen, M.T., Coughlin, E.B., Intrinsically conducting polymers and copolymers containing triazole moieties, Solid State Ionics, 2007, 178, 23-24, 1398-1403.

Litt, Morton H., Granados-Focil, Sergio, Novel PEM’s with high water retention. U.S. Pat. Appl. Publ.  (2005),  45 pp.