Research

The Schroeder Group aims to understand how form and function arise in soft materials using single-molecule techniques combined with automated chemical synthesis. Research in the Schroeder Group is currently focused on three areas:

(1) Non-equilibrium dynamics of soft materials – Our group aims to understand how molecular-scale properties give rise to bulk stress and mechanical behavior in polymers, lipid vesicles, and colloidal suspensions. In one area, we study lipid vesicle dynamics and capillary suspension breakup in flow using the Stokes trap, which is a new method for automated flow control developed in our group. In a second area, we use single molecule techniques to study the non-equilibrium dynamics and rheology of entangled polymers and architecturally complex materials. 

(2) Molecular electronics – Our group aims to understand how molecular composition and monomer sequence govern the charge transport properties of biological polymers, conjugated organic molecules, and redox-active materials. This work is essential for guiding the development of new energy capture and storage and applications. A key focus lies in understanding electron transport in biological materials such as peptides, proteins, and self-assembled protein nanowires. 

(3) Closed-loop materials discovery & automated synthesis – Our work focuses on using closed-loop experimentation to discover new materials with enhanced functional properties, e.g. new electrochromic molecules or organic light-harvesting molecules with enhanced photostability. A key focus lies in using “Lego-like” synthesis of organic materials using a modular set of molecular building blocks, which greatly accelerates the rate of materials discovery across large chemical spaces.

Research Highlights

Closed-loop materials discovery & automated synthesis    (more…)

Closed-loop discovery of photostable light-harvesting molecules
 
Open Macromolecular Genome (OMG): generative design of synthetically accessible polymers
 

Nature, 2024

 

ACS Polymers Au, 2023

 

Closed-loop optimization of general reaction conditions
 
Automated synthesis for single-molecule electronics
 
Science, 2022   Nature Communications, 2022

Molecular electronics    (more…)

Shape-persistent molecules exhibit nanogap-independent conductance
 
Secondary structure determines electron transport in peptides
 
Enhanced electron transport in open-shell radicals
   

Nature Chemistry, 2024

  PNAS, 2024   Nano Letters, 2023

 

Ladder-type molecules as single-molecule electronic switches
 
Single-molecule electronics with host-guest complexes
 
Electron transport in sequence-defined oligomers
   

Chem, 2023

  JACS, 2022   JACS, 2020

Vesicle & lipid membrane dynamics    (more…)

Non-equilibrium stretching of vesicles in flow
 
Dynamics of vesicles in oscillatory flows
 
Flow-phase diagram for lipid vesicles in extensional flow
   

Langmuir, 2021

  Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2021   Soft Matter, 2020

Stokes Trap    (more…)

3D manipulation and dynamics of soft materials in 3D flows
 
Orientation control and trajectory tracking with automated flow control
 
Stokes trap for multiplexed particle manipulation
   

Journal of Rheology, 2023

  Physical Review Fluids, 2019   PNAS, 2016

Single polymer dynamics      (more…)

Direct observation of ring polymer dynamics in shear flow 
 
Ring-linear threading events in semi-dilute solutions
 
Dynamically heterogeneous relaxation of entangled polymer solutions
   

Macromolecules, 2020

  Nature Communications, 2019   PRL, 2018

Prior Research

DNA data storage

Supramolecular assembly of proteins

Single molecule biophysics & fluorescent proteins