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CHANG Y. RYU

persons photo Title(s): Assistant Professor
Department: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Website: http://block.chem.rpi.edu/
Email: ryuc@rpi.edu
Phone: (518) 276-2060
Fax: (518) 276-4887
Postal Mail: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 110-8th Street
(205 Cogswell Laboratory) Troy, NY 12180 USA

Career Highlights

Upon earning his Ph.D. with Tim Lodge at the University of Minnesota , Dr. Ryu served as a postdoctoral researcher with Ed Kramer and Glenn Fredrickson at the University of California , Santa Barbara for nearly two years. He joined Rensselaer in November, 2000 as an assistant professor of chemistry, and has won the NSF CAREER Award (2005), Mettler-Toledo Thermal Analysis Education Grant (2001), the Arthur K. Doolittle Award from the American Chemical Society Division of Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering (1998), and Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies Scholarship (1993-1998).

Research Areas

Macromolecular Separation and Adsorption

Ryu's group is studying macromolecular separation and adsorption using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). They study polymer separation by HPLC and explore its unique applications for rigorous analysis and purification of polymers, block copolymers and functional oligomers. He also pursues a molecular level understanding of polymer/copolymer adsorption in confined geometries in order to gain insights on macromolecular interactions during HPLC. Dr. Ryu mainly interested in separating (co)polymers and oligomers that are synthetically very challenging to obtain as pure samples and/or can have technological implications in nanoscale self-assembly, electro-optical applications, and carbon nanotube fabrication.

Block Copolymer Self-Assembly in Solution and Thin Films

Professor Ryu is interested in developing a polymer research program in structure-property relationships of multiphase polymer systems, where their performance and applications are closely related to the mesoscopic morphologies. The central theme of my research effort will be the design, synthesis, and characterization of model polymers and the study of their structure-property relationships as in bulk and thin films. He will combine the polymer separation technique using HPLC to obtain pure block copolymers and study their self-assembly in solution and thin films. The ultimate aim will be to guide the rational design of polymeric materials, thus gaining a fundamental understanding in the correlation between properties and structures in multiphase polymers.

Polymer-Carbon Nanotube Hybrid Materials

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have many desirable characteristics such as high mechanical strengths and high conductivity. Ryu has developed novel polymer-carbon nanotubes hybrid materials by grafting polymer chains to the nanotubes using anionic polymerization techniques. Possible applications of the hybrid materials include structural reinforcements in composite materials, because the grafted polymer chains improve the adhesion between stiff nanotubes and polymer matrix.

Selected Publications

  • H. Yang, T.J. Shin, L. Yang, K.W. Cho, C.Y. Ryu, Z. Bao, “Effect of Mesoscale Crystalline Structure on Field-Effect Mobility of Regioregular Poly(3-hexyl thiophene) in Thin Film Transistors,” Adv. Function. Mat., 15(4), 671-676 (2005)
  • X.W. Yang, F.J. Hua, K. Yamato, E. Ruckenstein, B. Gong, W. Kim, C.Y. Ryu, Angew, "Supramolecular AB diblock copolymers," Chem.-Int. Edit., 43, 6471-6474 (2004)
  • J.T. Han, D.H. Lee, C.Y. Ryu, K.W. Cho, "Fabrication of superhydrophobic surface from a supramolecular organosilane with quadruple hydrogen bonding," J. Am. Chem. Soc., 126, 4796-4797 (2004)
  • S. Park, I. Park, T. Chang, C.Y. Ryu, "Interaction-controlled HPLC for block copolymer analysis and separation," J. Am. Chem. Soc., 126, 8906-8907 (2004)
  • S. Lastella, Y.J. Jung, H.C. Yang, R. Vajtai, P.M. Ajayan, C.Y. Ryu, D.A. Rider, I. Manners, "Density control of single-walled carbon nanotubes using patterned iron nanoparticle catalysts derived from phase-separated thin films of a polyferrocene block copolymer," J. Mater. Chem., 14, 1791-1794 (2004)
  • J.H. Cho, D.H. Lee, H.S. Shin, S.K. Pattanayek, C.Y. Ryu, K. Cho, K. “Exploiting Poly(dimethylsiloxane)-Modified Tips To Evaluate Frictional Behavior by Friction Force Microscopy,” Langmuir, 20, 11499-11503 (2004)
  • S. Lastella, Y.J. Jung, H.C. Yang, R. Vajtai, P.M. Ajayan, C.Y. Ryu, D.A. Rider, I. Manners, "Density control of single-walled carbon nanotubes using patterned iron nanoparticle catalysts derived from phase-separated thin films of a polyferrocene block copolymer," J. Mater. Chem., 14, 1791-1794 (2004)
  • J.H. Cho, D.H. Lee, H.S. Shin, S.K. Pattanayek, C.Y. Ryu, K. Cho, K. “Exploiting Poly(dimethylsiloxane)-Modified Tips To Evaluate Frictional Behavior by Friction Force Microscopy,” Langmuir 2004, 20, 11499-11503
  • G. Viswanathan, N. Chakrapani, H.C. Yang, B.Q. Wei, H.S. Chung, K.W. Cho, C.Y. Ryu, P.M. Ajayan, “Single-step in situ synthesis of polymer-grafted single-wall nanotube composites,” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 125 (31), 9258-9259 (2003)
  • E. Lahiff, C.Y. Ryu, S. Curran, A.I. Minett, W.J. Blau, P.M. Ajayan, “Selective positioning and density control of nanotubes within a polymer thin film,” Nano Letters, 3 (10), 1333-1337 (2003)

Professional Appointments

2000-Present   Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
1998-2000 Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California at Santa Barbara

Professional Preparation

University of Minnesota   Chemical Engineering Ph.D. 1998
Seoul National University, Korea Chemical Technology M.S. 1992
Seoul National University, Korea (with honors) Chemical Technology B.S. 1990