Christopher Johnson

Ph.D. Candidate
Email: chriswj@seas.upenn.edu
Phone: Available upon request.

220 S 33rd St
Moore 300B
Philadelphia, PA, 19104

Research Summary – Updated Sept. 2023

Bio

2016-2020 – Honors Bachelor of Chemical Engineering – University of Delaware

2020-Present – Doctoral Student in Osuji Lab – University of Pennsylvania

May 2021 – Passed Qualifying Exam

Auguest 2022 – Received Masters in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania

April 2023 – Passed Thesis Proposal

Current Research

I make membranes out of self-assembling polymerizable surfactants to investigate the interplay of structure-property relationships and the motion of charged particles within assembled species. This work is focused on the physics of membranes designed for nanoparticle filtration, salt separations, organic separations, and fuel cells. I am a part of the VIEST seed group focusing on ordered nanofiltrations. Additionally, I was a recipient of a 2022-2023 VIEST Fellowship.

My specific research skills include structure identification through transmission and grazing-incidence small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS/GISAXS) and materials property classification through dielectric spectroscopy (DS) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), with proficiency in a gamut of methods (DSC, TGA, UV-Vis Spectroscopy, etc.). I also enjoy any technique that involves imaging.

Publications and Presentations

A pH- and Light-responsive Nanoporous Lyotropic Gyroid Polymer Network. P. Li, C. Johnson, S. S. Dyer, C. O. Osuji, D. L. Gin. Advanced Materials Interfaces (2022). doi:10.1002/admi.202201761

Sulfonic-acid-based lyotropic bicontinuous cubic polymer network for molecular-size-selective heterogeneous catalysis. K. Culley, C. Johnson, D. L. Gin. Chemical Communications (2023)

Effect of localized control of cross-link density on mechanical properties of bicontinuous cubic lyotropic networks via copolymerization with different singly-polymerizable monomers. Lauren N. Bodkin, Christopher W. Johnson, Keira E. Culley, Zachary A. Krajnak, Jeffrey R. Hage, Na Kyung Kim, Chinedum O. Osuji, Douglas L. Gin. Polymer (2023) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymer.2023.126615.

Presented posters at University of Pennsylvania Graduate Student Symposium in 2021 and 2022.

Come talk to me at ACS Spring Meeting 2023! I will be giving a talk entitled “Transport in Resilient Anion Exchange Membranes Derived from Crosslinked Lyotropic Mesophases”

Previous Research and Achievements

Computational study of the self-assembly of generic brush-coil block copolymers with regards to changes in the architecture of the solvophilic brush block – supervised by Dr. Arthi Jayaraman (University of Delaware)