Education

B.S., 1997, Nanjing University
Ph.D., 2006, Carnegie Mellon University

Honors and Awards

Senior Editor: Progress in Polymer Science

ACS Outreach Volunteer of the Year Award for the South Carolina Section, 2023; NSF Special Creativity Award, 2022; Fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, 2021; President’s Coin of Excellence, University of South Carolina, 2021; Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science; 2020; Russell Research Award for the Science, Mathematics, and Engineering, University of South Carolina, 2020; POLY Fellow of American Chemical Society, 2018; Kavli Fellow of National Academy of Sciences, 2018; ACS Outreach Volunteer of the Year Award for the South Carolina Section, 2018; Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry, 2017; Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, 2017; South Carolina Governor’s Award for Young Scientist for Excellence in Scientific Research, 2016; Distinguished Undergraduate Research Mentor Award, University of South Carolina, 2015;  ACS PMSE Young Investigator, 2014;  NSF Career Award, 2013; Thieme Chemistry Journal Award, 2013;  USC Breakthrough Rising Star, 2013.

Research Interests

Organic polymer synthesis, controlled/living radical polymerization, renewable biobased polymers from natural resources, antimicrobial polymers, metal-containing polymers, macromolecular self-assembly, polymer nanotechnology, clean energy.

Our research combines synthesis of innovative polymeric materials, including both renewable biobased polymers, nanostructured polymers and metal-containing polymers, which can find applications ranging from novel biodegradable thermoplastics, drug delivery, antimicrobials, magnetic materials, nanolithography, etc. We also study macromolecular self-assembly in both solutions and thin films.

Renewable Biobased Polymers from Natural Resources

Synthesis of renewable polymeric materials from natural resources has become a rapidly growing area, as these materials could potentially replace or partially replace environmentally and energy unfavorable plastics derived from petroleum chemicals. However, applications of renewable polymers are significantly behind petroleum-derived polymers, partially because of limitations in the monomer resources and therefore derived polymers. We have developed a variety of renewable monomers and polymers using resin acids as natural resources. Our goal is to revolutionize traditional renewable polymers and develop a new class of green polymers such as thermoplastic elastomers, degradable polymers and natural fiber reinforced nanocomposites.

Next-Generation Antimicrobial Polymers

The development of robust, selective and efficient antimicrobial agents in large quantities and low cost is essential to prevent bacteria-associated infections. We are developing next-generation antimicrobial materials derived from natural products that exhibit high antimicrobial activities against a broad spectrum of bacteria while maintaining selective lysis on bacterial cell membranes without inducing significant haemolysis of red blood cells over a wide range of concentrations.

Metal-Containing Polymers

Metal-containing polymers have attracted significant attentions since they have great potentials in catalytic, optical, magnetic and biological applications as well as the use for semiconductors, lithographic resists, and ceramic precursors due to the specific and unique geometries and their properties of metallocenes. Compared to ferrocene and ferrocene polymers, cobaltocene has received far less attention, partly because of greater difficulty in preparing substituted derivatives. We have developed a strategy to prepare 18-e cobaltocenium derivatives. We aim to develop a synthetic toolbox towards well-defined cobaltocenium polymers: (1) side-chain polymers, (2) main-chain polymers, and (3) end-functionalized polymers. The goal is to explore a broad range of spectra of novel cobaltocenium polymers and to lay out synthetic foundation of this type of polymers for many potential applications such as magnetic materials, energy storage and anticancer drugs. 

Selected Publications

Zhu, T.; Xu, S.; Rahman, Md. A.; Dogdibegovic, E.; Yang, P.; Pageni, P.; Kabir, Mohammad P.; Zhou, X.; Tang, C. Cationic Metallo-Polyelectrolytes for Robust Alkaline Anion-Exchange Membranes‎, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2018, 57, 2388-2392. DOI: 10.1002/anie.201712387.

Qiao Y.; Yin X.; Zhu T.; Li H.; Tang C. Dielectric Polymers with Novel Chemistry, Compositions and Architectures, Prog. Polym. Sci., 2018, 80, 153-162.                   DOI:  10.1016/j.progpolymsci.2018.01.003.

Wang Z.; Yuan L.; Tang C. Sustainable Elastomers from Renewable Biomass, Acc. Chem. Res, 2017, 50, 1762-1773. DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.7b00209.

Yan Y.; Zhang J.; Ren L.; Tang C. Metal-Containing and Related Polymers for Biomedical Applications, Chem. Soc. Rev., 2016, 45, 5232-5263.                               DOI: 10.1039/C6CS00026F.

Zhang, J.; Chen, Y.-P.; Miller, K. P.; Ganewatta, M. S.; Bam, M.; Yan, Y.; Nagarkatti, M.; Decho, A. W.; Tang, C. Antimicrobial Metallopolymers and Their Bioconjugates with Antibiotics against Multidrug Resistant Bacteria. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2014, 136, 4873-4876. DOI: 10.1021/ja5011338.