Jiheong KANG

As a materials chemist, Associate Professor Jiheong Kang at Seoul National University focuses on designing molecules and polymers using tools from synthetic chemistry, supramolecular chemistry, and nanotechnology to address the grand challenges in soft materials.

He introduced a groundbreaking design strategy for highly robust yet self-healing supramolecular elastomers. This strategy incorporates two distinct non-covalent crosslinking mechanisms with varying bond lifetimes, addressing the challenge of high viscoelasticity observed in many self-healing polymers. The effectiveness of this approach was validated through three notable examples: hydrogen bonding systems, metal-ligand coordination systems, and dynamic covalent systems.

Mixing nanomaterials with polymers has long been a strategy to enhance polymer properties, but achieving long-range assembly of nanomaterials within polymers has proven elusive. To address this challenge, Jiheong’s group has recently reported several innovative strategies for achieving long-range assembly of nanomaterials.

The first method is acoustic assembly, which facilitated the long-range assembly of liquid metal droplets within a polymer matrix, resulting in a percolation network with exceptional electrical and electromechanical properties. The second method is template-directed assembly, which enabled defect-free nanostructures of conductive polymers, yielding unprecedented electrical and electromechanical properties.

Currently, his team is pursuing two long-term research objectives. They aim to develop soft material systems with unprecedented dynamic properties, such as self-healing, stimuli-responsiveness, and autonomous 3D assembly for wearable and implantable electronics, providing material solutions to realize a zero-gap human-machine interface without discomfort or foreign body responses.