Archived News

April 2019: Congratulations to Seth Sharber, who successfully defended his PhD thesis! Good luck at your new position at Aramco!
April 2019: Gianna Tutoni chooses Duke University to pursue her PhD in Chemistry. Good luck!
December 2018: Our paper titled "Polymer Amphiphiles for Photoregulated Anticancer Drug Delivery” is accepted for publication in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. A big thank you to our collaborators—the Rotello group at UMass and the Xu group at Tufts—for their key contributions to this work!
December 2018: Our paper titled "Programmed Twisting of Phenylene-Ethynylene Linkages from Aromatic Stacking Interactions” is accepted for publication in Journal of Materials Chemistry C.
October 2018: Our paper titled "Small Changes With Big Consequences: Swapping Two Atoms In Side Chains Changes Phenylene Ethynylene Packing And Fluorescence” is accepted for publication in Chemistry - A European Journal.
September 2018: Our paper titled "Tuning the Negative Photochromism of Water Soluble Spiropyran Polymers” is accepted for publication in Macromolecules.
May 2018: Congratulations to Fanny Frausto, who defended her thesis in April and has now graduated with her PhD Dr. Frausto will be a research chemist at Clorox in California. Good luck Fanny!
May 2018: Undergraduate researchers Connor Doherty and Arielle Mann graduate from Tufts with ACS Certified BS degrees in Chemistry! Farewell and best of luck!
May 2018: Our paper titled "Reversible Mechanofluorochromism of Aniline-Terminated Phenylene Ethynylenes” is published in Chemical Science. Special thanks to our collaborators in the Nieh group at UConn!
May 2018: Thank you to the National Science Foundation (Chemistry Division, Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry Program) for supporting our research on the assembly of photochromic polyelectrolytes.
April 2018: Our invited paper titled "Tuning Key Properties of Singlet Oxygen Responsive Acene-Doped Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles” is published for the special issue on singlet oxygen in ChemPhotoChem.
February 2018: SWT promoted to Professor. Thank you to all students past and current for your important contributions!
November 2017: Welcome to our new graduate students: Sare Nur Kanari and Yu Yan!
September 2017: See a summary of our presentation at the Fall 2017 ACS meeting summarized in a recent article in C&E News that highlights non-conventional building blocks in conjugated materials.
September 2017: Our paper titled "UV and NIR-Responsive Layer-by-Layer Films Containing 6-Bromo-7-hydroxycoumarin Photolabile Groups” has been accepted for publication in Langmuir.
August 2017: Our paper titled “Directly Photopatternable Polythiophene as Dual Tone Photoresist” has been published in Macromolecules.
July 2017: Congratulations to Xiaoran Hu, who successfully defended his PhD thesis! Dr. Hu will be moving to a postdoctoral associate position in the laboratory of Prof. Maxwell Robb at Caltech.
April 2017: Congratulations to undergraduate researcher Yimin Zhang, who won the Phyllis Brauner Memorial Book Prize for outstanding elevator pitch at the NSCRC Conference. Yimin also defended her Senior Thesis with High Honors!
April 2017: Our paper titled "Ratiometric Singlet Oxygen Detection in Water Using Acene Doped Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles” has been published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.
March 2017: Our paper titled "Substituent Effects that Control Conjugated Oligomer Conformation Through Non-Covalent Interactions” has been published in JACS.
February 2017: Congratulations to 3rd Year Grad Student Seth Sharber, who won the poster prize at this year’s Bruker-MIT Symposium!
February 2017: Our paper titled “Light-Controlled Selective Disruption, Multilevel Patterning, and Sequential Release with Polyelectrolyte Multilayer Films Incorporating Four Photocleavable Chromophores” has been published in Chemistry of Materials.
November 2016: Welcome to 1st Year Graduate Student Will Mullin!
August 2016: Thank you to the National Science Foundation (Chemistry Division, Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program) for supporting our research on singlet oxygen-responsive nanoparticles.
August 2016: Thank you to the Department of Energy (Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Chemistry Program) for supporting our research on understanding solid-state structure and properties of conjugated molecules.
August 2016: Our paper titled “Triggered Release of Encapsulated Cargo from Photoresponsive Polyelectrolyte Nanocomplexes” has been published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.
July 2016: Welcome to new postdoc Valentina Brega!
March 2016: Our paper titled "Water-Soluble Fluorescent Polymers that Respond to Singlet Oxygen” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry.
March 2016: Congratulations to our PhD student Xiaoran Hu for winning the Tufts Graduate Student Research Competition!
October 2015: Our paper titled “Stimuli-Responsive Free-Standing Layer-By-Layer Films” has been accepted for publication in Advanced Materials.
September 2015: Our paper titled "Steric and Electronic Substituent Effects Influencing Regioselectivity of Tetracene Endoperoxidation” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Organic Chemistry.
September 2015: Our invited Account "Cycloadditions of Singlet Oxygen for Responsive Fluorescent Polymers” has been accepted for publication in Synlett.
September 2015: Our paper titled "Two-Dimensional, Acene-Containing Conjugated Polymers That Show Ratiometric Fluorescent Response To Singlet Oxygen” has been accepted for publication in Macromolecules.
August 2015: Congratulations to Dr. Esra Altinok, our newest PhD recipient! She will be joining NBD Nanotechnologies as a Research Chemist. Farewell and good luck, Esra!
June 2015: Best of luck to Dr. Zachary Smith, who has left to begin a postdoc in the lab of Prof. Stefanie Sydlik at Carnegie Mellon!
June 2015: Our paper titled "Photolabile ROMP Gels Using ortho-Nitrobenzyl Functionalized Crosslinkers” has been accepted for publication in Polymer Chemistry.
April 2015: Our paper titled "Two-Dimensional Bricklayer Arrangements of Tolans Using Halogen Bonding Interactions” has been accepted for publication to Chemical Communications.
April 2015: Congratulations to the newest PhD recipient from our group: Zach Smith!
January 2015: Our paper titled “Thiophene-Based Conjugated Polymers with Photolabile Solubilizing Side Chains” has been accepted for publication in Macromolecules.
November 2014: Welcome to new first year graduate students: Brendan Duran, Matthew Feeney, and Seth Sharber!
August 2014: Jingjing has successfully defended his PhD Thesis! Congratulations Dr. Zhang!
July 2014: Our paper titled "Twisting and Piezochromism of Phenylene-Ethynylenes With Aromatic Interactions Between Side Chains and Main Chains” has been accepted for publication in Chemical Science.
July 2014: Our lab, together with the laboratory of Ayse Asatekin, has been awarded a Tufts Collaborates! seed grant for photoactive membrane materials.
June 2014: BS chemist Trey Lawrence has accepted a job at Aramco. Good luck Trey!
May 2014: The Board of Trustees at Tufts University has approved Sam’s application for promotion to Associate Professor without limit of time.
May 2014: Our recent PhD recipient, Dr. Patricia Gumbley, has accepted a position at Dow. Best of luck Patty!
May 2014: Our paper titled “Reversible Photochemical Tuning of Net Charge Separation from Contact Electrification” has been published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
April 2014: Rob has successfully defended his PhD Thesis! Congratulations Dr. Pawle!
April 2014: Patty has successfully defended her PhD Thesis! Congratulations Dr. Gumbley!
March 2014: Our paper titled "Bandgap Engineering of Conjugated Materials With Non-Conjugated Side Chains” has been published in Macromolecules. The paper is HERE.
February 2014: Our paper titled "Combining Electronic and Steric Effects For Highly Stable Unsymmetric Pentacenes” has been published in Chemistry A European Journal.
January 2014: Our paper titled "Wavelength-Selective Disruption and Triggered Release with Photolabile Polyelectrolyte Multilayers” has been published in Chemistry of Materials.
November 2013: Grad student Patty Gumbley is awarded the Eli Lilly Travel Grant Winner for the March Dallas ACS Meeting!
November 2013: Our invited chapter, “Polymer-based Sensors" in the Encyclopedia for Polymeric Nanomaterials is accepted.
November 2013: Welcome to our newest group member, graduate student Fanny Frausto.
October 2013: Our paper titled "Photoresponsive Gels Prepared by ROMP” is published in Macromolecular Rapid Communications.
July 2013: Our proposal on multiplicative amplification using singlet oxygen and conjugated materials has been funded by the Division of Chemistry at the NSF.
June 2013: Welcome to our new group member, Tufts undergraduate Bond Umezuruike.
May 2013: Sam is selected for a 2013 "Teaching with Technology Award" by Tufts ESTS.
April 2013: Sam presents two talks at the 2013 New Orleans ACS meeting.
March 2013: Sam presents an invited talk at Pittcon 2013 in honor of Prof. David Walt's selection for the 2013 Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award.
March 2013: Trey Lawrence is selected as a Beckman Scholar!
February 2013: The lab is selected for a 3M Nontenured Faculty Award.
January 2013: Our paper titled "Furan-Containing Singlet Oxygen-Responsive Conjugated Polymers" by Altinok, Friedle, and Thomas has been accepted for publication in Macromolecules.
January 2013: Patty Gumbley is selected for a GAANN Award. Congratulations Patty!
November 2012: Welcome to our new group members: first-year graduate students Rom Baral and Xiaoran Hu.
September 2012: Welcome to our new group members: Tufts undergrads Ankita Agarwal and Trey Lawrence.
September 2012: An invited Talent Article highlighting some of our research accomplishments has been accepted for publication in Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics. You can access it HERE.
August 2012: An NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant has been awarded to Tufts (Thomas co-PI) for a new X-Ray diffractometer.
August 2012: Our recent ACS Macro Letters paper is highlighted in the September 2012 issue of Synfacts.
August 2012: Our paper titled "Acene-Doped Polymer Films: Singlet Oxygen Dosimetry and Protein Sensing" by Koylu, Sarrafpour, Zhang, Ramjattan, Panzer, and Thomas has been accepted for publication in Chemical Communications.
July 2012: Our recent ACS Macro Lett. paper is at the top of this month's most read list.
June 2012: Our paper titled "Photoinduced Aggregation of Polythiophenes" by Smith, Pawle, and Thomas has been accepted for publication in ACS Macro Letters.
May 2012: Sam is profiled on the Journal of Materials Chemistry blog.
May 2012: Welcome to new group member, first-year graduate student Dmitriy Pukhov!
April 2012: Our J. Mater. Chem. on crowded tetracenes has been highlighted on the Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog as a "Hot Article".
April 2012: Our lab is selected for an award for the Tufts University Open Access Fund to enable making our recent J. Mater. Chem. paper freely available.
February 2012: Our paper titled "Structure, Photophysics, and Photooxidation of Crowded Diethynyltetracenes" by Zhang, Sarrafpour, Haas, Müller, and Thomas has been accepted for publication in Journal of Materials Chemistry.
January 2012: Our paper titled "Photochemical Disruption of Polyelectrolyte Multilayers" by Koylu, Thapa, Gumbley, and Thomas has been accepted for publication in Advanced Materials.
January 2012: We are selected by the National Science Foundation for a 2012 CAREER award! This grant will fund research in photoresponsive charge-shifting polymers, as well as community college outreach and science fair mentoring.