Selective capture and removal of environmentally relevant ions and persistent contaminants remains a critical challenge in water and soil remediation. Many harmful species occur at low concentrations in complex matrices containing competing salts and natural organic matter, making it difficult to achieve both high selectivity and practical capacity using conventional adsorbents. Current approaches often face trade-offs between selectivity, stability, regeneration, and cost, and they may perform inconsistently across variable environmental conditions.
Our research is focused on developing molecular design principles for selective binding to priority contaminants, including environmental metal ions (e.g., arsenic species), oxyanions (e.g., phosphate), and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). A central theme is the creation of novel functional groups that leverage tunable noncovalent interactions, particularly directional hydrogen bonding, to enhance recognition and discrimination in water. By controlling the geometry, polarity, and hydrogen-bonding capability of these functional groups, we aim to establish fundamental structure-function relationships that govern selectivity and binding strength under realistic conditions.
In parallel, we are pursuing strategies to introduce these functional groups into common, economically viable materials to enable scalable capture and remediation platforms. These efforts include functionalization of widely available substrates and interfaces to create selective sorbents and membranes that can be evaluated for performance, regeneration, and compatibility with complex environmental samples.