Research Overview

The Ricarte Lab investigates how enhanced chemical functionality affects fundamental, but technologically important, physical properties of novel polymer materials. The potential applications of our work include energy storage, separations, medicine, consumer products, and advanced performance materials.

We use scalable polymer synthesis techniques to create materials with intricate functionality. To study these complex systems, we routinely – but not exclusively – use cryogenic and analytical electron microscopy, scattering (soft and hard X-rays, neutrons, light, and electrons), rheology, and theoretical modeling.