/ field trip · Hattiesburg, MS
Welcome to the Gu Lab
The Gu Research Group discovers soft materials whose function comes from their mesoscale morphology, using high-throughput experiments, active learning and X-ray and neutron scattering. Here is the research in three acts.
Focus 1
Autonomous discovery of new phases for polymeric materials
Robots make the samples, scattering reads their structure, and an active-learning model decides what to make next. Watch it spend its samples where it is least sure, along the boundary between phases, instead of on a blind grid.
- High-throughput robotic processing
- Active learning and chemical informatics
- Targets like polymer electrolytes for batteries
Focus 2
Functional soft electronics
Electronics that bend, stretch, sense, and even dissolve when the job is done. Here a semiconducting polymer film keeps carrying current while it is pulled to more than twice its length.
- Stretchable semiconducting polymers
- Degradable mixed ionic–electronic conductors
- Transistor sensors for molecules like serotonin
Focus 3
Data-driven engineering for new electronically functional polymers
How conjugated polymer chains pack decides how charge moves through them. As the chains straighten and stack, the scattering peak sharpens and the charge can travel. Data and models connect the chemistry to that structure.
- Chain conformation and packing of conjugated polymers
- Hard and soft X-ray and neutron scattering
- From transistors to large-area printed solar cells
/ where the scattering happens
The beamline passport
Synchrotrons and neutron sources across the country, plus an X-ray beamline at home.
Want the official version?
This is an unofficial tour by a group member. The group's own site has the full story, the people, and how to join.