Haifeng Gao // People // Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry // University of Notre Dame

Haifeng Gao

Polymer Chemistry and Soft Nanomaterials

Biography

2017-present: Associate Professor, University of Notre Dame
2011-2017: Assistant Professor, University of Notre Dame
2009-2011: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California at Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
2008: Ph.D. in Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University
2003: M.S. in Polymer Chemistry, Fudan University, China
2000: B.S. in Polymer Chemistry, Fudan University, China

Selected Awards

2016: NSF CAREER Award
2014: Army Young Investigator Program (YIP) Award
2013: UMass MRSEC Young Investigator Award
2010: AzkoNobel Award for Outstanding Graduate Research in Polymer Chemistry, American Chemical Society
2008: Guy C. Berry Graduate Research Award, Carnegie Mellon University
2007: McWilliams Fellowship, Carnegie Mellon University

Research Interests

The Gao research group focuses on synthesizing functional polymer materials with controlled nanostructures and understanding their fundamental structure-property relationships. These materials will meet critical needs in the fields of biofunctional materials, environmental remediation and energy conversion. A number of approaches ranging from modern organic synthesis to biomimetic programmed self assembly will be applied to construct these functional materials. By building soft polymer materials ranging in size and complexity from oligomers, to multi-segmented block copolymers, and to shape-persistent hierarchical nanocomposites, various functionalities will be incorporated into these polymers in a predetermined manner. Interesting research projects include:

Developing new methodologies for efficient polymer synthesis and functionalization.
Biomimetic assembly of synthetic polymer chains into shape-persistent nanostructures.
Exploiting nanostructured polymer materials for gas separation and selective adsorption.
Electro-active polymers and nanocomposites.

Recent Publications

Ma, K. L.; Jin, X. Y.; Gan, W. P.; Fan, C. K. and Gao, H. F. "Chain-Growth Click Copolymerization for the Synthesis of Branched Copolymers with Tunable Branching Densities" 2022 Polymer Chemistry, 13 (7), pp.891-897. DOI: 10.1039/d1py01635k.
Jin, X. Y.; Ma, K. L.; Chakkamalayath, J.; Morsby, J. and Gao, H. F. "In Situ Photocatalyzed Polymerization to Stabilize Perovskite Nanocrystals in Protic Solvents" 2022 ACS Energy Letters, 7 (2), pp.610-616. DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.1c02660.
Jin, X. Y.; Ye, Q. H.; Wang, C. W.; Wu, Y.; Ma, K. L.; Yu, S. H.; Wei, N. and Gao, H. F. "Magnetic Nanoplatforms for Covalent Protein Immobilization Based on Spy Chemistry" 2021 ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 13 (37), pp.44147-44156. DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c14670.
Gao, H. F. "Synthesis of Linear Polymers in High Molecular Weights Via Reaction-Enhanced Reactivity of Intermediates using Friedel-Crafts Polycondensation" 2021 ACS Omega, 6 (7), pp.4527-4533. DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.0c06085.
Padilla-Coley, S.; Xu, H.; Morsby, J.; Gao, H. F. and Smith, B. D. "Supramolecular Loading of a Broad Spectrum of Molecular Guests in Hyperbranched Polytriazole Nanoparticles with Cores Containing Multiple Functional Groups" 2020 Biomacromolecules, 21 (6), pp.2165-2175. DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.0c00151.
Cuneo, T. and Gao, H. F. "Recent Advances on Synthesis and Biomaterials Applications of Hyperbranched Polymers" 2020 Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews-Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology, 12 (6), E1640. DOI: 10.1002/wnan.1640.