Rational design and implementation of novel polymer adsorbents for selective uptake of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances from groundwater

Dichtel will collaborate with Prof. Damian Helbling (Cornell Civil and Environmental Engineering) to design, synthesize, and characterize cyclodextrin-containing polymers capable of sequestering poly- and per-fluorinatated substances (PFASs) from contaminated water. Dichtel’s group will build on a recent discovery of a polymer that shows promise for this application by studying fundamental aspects of the polymerization process, designing new variants of the polymer with improved performance, and developing strategies to control its particle size to enable the construction of flow-through purification columns. Dichtel and his group will design these materials and prepare them. They will provide these materials to the Helbling group for more extensive measurements of their ability to remove pollutants under environmentally relevant conditions. The project also engages CycloPure, Inc., a start-up company founded by Dichtel, to develop processes to prepare the most promising materials on industrially relevant scales in the later half of the project.