Jason E. Bara

Polyimides and ionic liquids (ILs) have each emerged as promising classes of materials for advanced gas separation membranes which can greatly improve energy efficiency and process operation compared to conventional absorption-based technologies. Despite the seemingly disparate natures of polyimides and ILs, our group has developed methodologies by which these two very distinct materials are compatibilized into a single, highly tailorable and robust structure. The hybridization of polyimides and ionenes presents unprecedented opportunities to design new materials featuring unique nanostructures/free volume characteristics that arise from supramolecular assembly and Coulombic interactions facilitated by the addition of ILs to the polymer matrix.  This presentation will detail our design philosophy, synthetic approach, polymer structure-property relationships and performances as gas separation membranes.

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PW: UBCBE1

Jason Bara received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder.  He has authored more than 110 peer-reviewed research publications and 6 book chapters on the topics of separations, ionic liquids, polymer membranes, nanostructured materials, and chemical process engineering.  He has also been awarded 10 U.S. patents for discoveries in these areas.  In recognition of his research, he received the Early Career Fellow from the Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Division of ACS (2021), the Membranes (MDPI) Young Investigator Award (2020) and the FRI/John G. Kunesh Award from the Separations Division of AIChE(2015).  Jason has also been recognized for his contributions to chemical engineering education as the 2018 recipient of the Ray W. Fahien Award from ASEE and the 2017 recipient of the David Himmelblau Award for Innovations in Computer-Based Chemical Engineering Education Award from AIChE.  

• Time: 11:00 AM
• Location: 206 Furnas Hall
• Seminar Flyer