Physical Chemistry
Physical chemistry applies physics principles to understand chemical phenomena, studying molecular behavior, reaction kinetics, thermodynamics, and quantum mechanics. Our scientists investigate how atoms and molecules interact, energy changes during reactions, and material properties at the molecular level—providing fundamental insights that guide chemical synthesis, catalysis, and materials development.
Members
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Professor Budil’s group is interested in the physical behavior of macromolecules, including both synthetic polymers and biopolymers such as large proteins.
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Professor Daramola and the REPRODUCE Laboratory seeks to reverse the human impact on Earth’s natural cycles related to water, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus.
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Professor Deravi investigates fundamental mechanisms behind systems in biology to better inform the design of new classes of protein-based biomaterials that may interface with or enhance the performance of humans.
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Professor Dong develops design strategies for molecules, materials, and processes for advancing renewable energy, biomedicine, and other areas of societal importance.
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Professor Dransfield’s research interests blend computational chemistry with gas-phase kinetics and mechanistic studies, and the use of infrared spectroscopy to identify gas-phase and aerosol species.
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Professor Guo’s research interests include developing nuclear magnetic resonance and LC-MS based techniques for ligand screening and ligand-protein interaction studies.
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Professor Joshi’s research broadly deals with topics related to biologically inspired materials, protein engineering, self-assembly, and biointerfaces.
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Professor Kirss’s research interests are in synthetic and mechanistic chemistry of iron and ruthenium.
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The Lopez Group uses quantum mechanical and machine learning techniques to identify next-generation organic materials for applications in renewable energy and photomedicine.
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Professor Mukerjee’s research encompasses the areas of solid state chemistry, spectroscopy, and electrochemistry of electrode materials for electrochemical energy conversion and storage.
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The Sayre Research Group designs and synthesizes broad-spectrum photocatalysts for high-energy reactions.
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The Sherbo Lab is looking for electrochemical and biological ways to make important chemical products like fuels, foods, and fertilizers from gases and renewable energy.
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Professor Smotkin’s research is centered on the discovery of better materials for clean energy sources and processes.
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Professor Zhang’s focus is on integrating polymer chemistry with oligonucleotides and other bioactive building blocks in order to make them better biopharmaceuticals.
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In the news
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Research
Squid are some of nature’s best camouflagers. Researchers have a new explanation for why
Research from Leila Deravi, associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology, has brought light to how squids use organs to help power their camouflage abilities. -
Solving Quantum Riddles: Dr. Sijia Dong is Using Machine-Learning to Overcome Challenges in Quantum Chemical Computation
Complex chemistry, Machine learning, and quantum mechanics are fields that take strong computers and a lot of time to understand. Dr. Sijia Dong is simplifying that process by uniting the three. -
Research
Northeastern researchers create plastic that dissolves in water that promises to combat global pollution crisis
“Right now we use a lot of conventional nonbiodegradable plastics for applications they don’t need to be used in at all,” Joshi says. “If we replace that with our plastic, you could just flush it down the toilet and it would biodegrade.” -
Can we mimic the chemistry of the sun to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere?
Steven Lopez’s research searches for a molecule that can create a new material to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. -
Researchers discover promising new catalysts for hydrogen fuel cells
Northeastern professors Sanjeev Mukerjee and Arun Bansil discuss their breakthrough research on catalysts for hydrogen fuel cells. -
Re-Charging Batteries for a Clean Energy Future: Professor Eugene Smotkin’s Research, Company, and Nonprofit are Innovating the Future of Renewable Energy
Professor Eugene Smotkin is making reusable hybrid-batteries the future of clean energy through his research, his company, and his nonprofit. -
Researcher uses gene regulation to improve drug delivery and treatment of rare genetic diseases
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is one of the most severe forms of muscular dystrophy. It’s also one of the most rare, as the genetic disease affects one in 3,500 to 5,000 newborn boys. For Ke Zhang, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Northeastern University, that’s still one too many.