George John's Soft Materials Research Group

Department of Chemistry
The City College of New York-CUNY

News & Highlights (Selected)

Scientific American on May 2, 2008 in the news, “A Silver Coating in the Fight against Microbes”.

The New York Times on April 9, 2008 in Technology Innovation, “Harnessing Biology, and Avoiding Oil, for Chemical Goods”.

Prof. John featured in ‘Mathrubhumi’, National Newspaper, India on March 09, 2008.

Biobased Organic Synthesis | Molecular Gels and Drug-Delivery | Nanoparticles: Synthesis and Catalysis | Polymers and Coatings
Self-Assembled Functional Architectures | Undergraduate Research

Research - Biobased Organic Synthesis

Biobased organic synthesis, green chemistry and molecular functional materials.Recent research successfully demonstrated the generation of soft materials (nanofibers, lipid nanotubes, molecular gels, liquid crystals and coatings) from plant/crop-derived lipids using biobased organic synthesis (green chemistry) and through self-assembly process. Current interest is in the design and synthesis of biobased monomers/polymers with functional arms to find applications in paints, bio-adhesives, biobased photonic materials and antimicrobial coating technologies. We are involved in a multi-disciplinary team effort with the goal of developing eco-friendly products and chemicals, intermediates, antimicrobial paints, bioenergy and functional soft materials for variety of applications.

Related Pblications:

John, G., Vemula, P. K. ‘Crops: A Green Approach Towards Self-Assembled Soft Materials’ Accounts of Chemical Research 41, 769-782, (2008). INVITED.

Kumar, A., Vemula, P., Ajayan, P. M., John, G. ‘Silver Nanoparticles Embedded Anti-microbial Paints Based on Vegetable Oil’. Nature Materials, 7, 236-241 (2008). News in Scientific American Magazine.

Vemula, P., Aslam, U., Mallia, A., John, G. ‘In Situ Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles Using Molecular Gels and Liquid Crystals from Vitamin-C Amphiphiles’ Chem. Mat. 19, 138-140 (2007).

John, G., Vemula, P. ‘Design and Development of soft nanomaterials from biobased amphiphiles’ Soft Matter, 2, 909-914 (2006). INVITED highlights, Front cover page feature.

Vemula, P., Li, J, John, G. ‘Enzyme Catalysis: Tool to Make and Break Amygdalin Hydrogelators from Renewable Resources - A Delivery Model for Hydrophobic Drugs’ J. Am. Chem. Soc. 128, 8932-8938 (2006). Highlighted in Green Chem. 8, 675 (2006).

John, G., Zhu, G., Li, J., Dordick J. S. ‘Enzymatically-Derived Sugar Containing Self-Assembled Organogels with Nanostructured Morphologies’ Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 45, 4772-4775 (2006), Front cover page feature, Angew.Chem. 118, 4890-4893 (2006). Front cover page feature.

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	Department of Chemistry \| Division of Science \| The City College of New York \| Graduate Center of CUNY \| CUNY