Chemistry - Faculty

CHEM121 (College Chemistry I Lab)

CHEM 340 (Organic Chemistry I)

CHEM 341/3 (Organic Chemistry Labs)

CHEM342 (Organic Chemistry II)

Organic Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry

Research in our group focuses on understanding the fundamental mechanisms of fluorescent sensing and stimuli-responsive behaviors, and exploring their potential applications in our life. Students can grab knowledge and skills in the organic chemistry including both small molecules and polymers synthesis, functional materials preparation, as well as property characterization like NMR spectroscopy, polymer chromatography, and UV-vis/fluorescent spectroscopy.

Fluorescent sensors: The highly efficient design and synthesis of organic fluorophores with excellent quantum yields have received extensive devotion. They have been widely used in the area of organic fluorescent chemosensors. Nowadays, developing molecular probes which are able to detect two (or more than two) different analytes (cations, anions, and/or biomolecules) has emerged as a new research area and attracted considerable attention in the field of chemo- and biosensors.

Stimuli-responsive Functional Materials: Viologen as one of the redox-responsive units has been adopted in various polymeric materials and hydrogels, especially in developing artificial molecular muscles. It can easily convert chemical energy to mechanical force under redox conditions. Through rational structure design, the self-healing (via Van der Waals interaction) and reprocessing (via covalently adaptable networks) properties can be introduced to the viologen-based functional materials, to prolong the material lifetime and reduce the burden on environmental pollution.

 For more information, see Dr. Li's research website at 

https://leili318.wixsite.com/theliresearchgroup