Seminar

Department of Chemistry

 

Title: Conjugated Polyelectrolytes: Bridging the Gap Between Fundamental Properties and Applications to Biosensing and Antimicrobial Defense

 

 

Conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs) featuring poly(phenylene ethynylene) and poly(thiophene) backbones substituted with ionic solubilizing groups are water soluble. These materials display a variety of interesting properties, including self-assembly into nanoscale aggregates, ability to process into nanostructured layer-by-layer films and optical/stimuli responsive behavior in the presence of ions, surfactants and biomacromolecules. We have explored the use of cationic CPEs as fluorescent sensors for polyphosphates (pyrophosphate, ATP and ADP). In addition, cationic CPEs exhibit profound light-activated biocidal activity vs. a broad spectrum of bioagents, including bacteria, virus particles and spores. The talk will give a high-level overview work in this area, including recent work concerning the interactions between cationic CPEs and mammalian cells.  

Kirk Schanze earned his B.S. in Chemistry from Florida State University in 1979 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1983. He was appointed a Miller Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1984-1986 and began his independent faculty career at the University of Florida in 1986. Schanze was University Distinguished Professor and Prominski Professor of Chemistry at the University of Florida until 2016. He is currently the Robert A Welch Distinguished University Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He was a Senior Editor of the ACS journal Langmuir from 2000 - 2008. From 2008 - 2023, Schanze was Editor-in-Chief of ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces and the ACS Applied Materials family of journals (7 titles). He is currently serving as Deputy Editor of ACS Central Science which is the flagship diamond open access journal published by ACS. He has authored or co-authored 400 peer-reviewed articles on basic and applied esearch topics, with a primary focus on organic and organometallic materials chemistry, and is inventor or co-inventor in 20 patents or disclosures.

 

Host: Dr. John Reynolds