EST. 2014

JGK has been officially promoted from Associate Professor to (full) Professor. At this time of reflection he wishes to thank everyone (too many to name) for all of their hardwork, support and encouragement. In particular the members of the Kennemur Research Group, without whom, none of this would be possible.

Satheeshkumar (SK) has been officially offered a Dean's Postdoctoral Scholar position. With this fellowship, SK will teach a lecture in General Chemistry in Fall 2025 while maintaining his research in the Kennemur Group. It's a fantastic opportunity for him to explore and experience teaching at the collegiate level for his future career. Congrats!

Collaborators Prof. Karen Winey and Dr. Amalie Frischknecht, led by post-doc Dr. Solmi Oh, published an experimental and computational study on the conductivity and hydration of fluorine-free fuel cell membranes developed in the Kennemur Group. The well-defined and partially sulfonated p5PhS-H polymers, developed by and published by Courtney, showed percolated and highly conductive networks even when the degree of sulfonation reduces to ~50% . Check out the article HERE.

Collaborator Prof. Daniel Hallinan and his student, Patrick Blatt, published an investigation on the phase behavior and thermal properties when our precision lithium-TFSI single ion-conductor (SIC) is blended with PEO at different compositions. Check out the article HERE.

JGK and collaborator Prof. Karen Winey were interviewed to share insight on the replacement of fluorine-free polymeric materials using in Fuel Cell Applications. The article features our patented material p5PhS-H as a promising breakthrough towards this endeavor. Check out the article HERE.

Big week for undergraduate,Sophia Henges who completed her Honors in the Major Thesis and graduated with a B.S. Chemistry. She has now been offered the 2025 Provost's Graduate Excellence Fellowship by the Department of Chemistry at UT-Austin where she plans to attend graduate school.  This multi-year fellowship is offered only to the very best prospective students and comes with additional stipend. Huge congrats Sophia and good luck!

Jaehoon, Courtney, Presley, and JGK have revealed the changes in viscoelastic properties when a linear and entangled macroinitiator transforms into a bottlebrush polymer as a function of increasing side chain length. This study reveals that entanglements disappear using side chains that are much smaller (oligomeric) than typically used for BBs! Now published in Macromolecules. Congrats to all!

The fall 2024 semester was busy with milestone events for the group! Zana and Nath-Eddy both passed their candidacy exams. Liam and Laura for both completed their 2nd Year Talks. Lastly,  Jaehoon kicked off the Spring 2025 semester with an excellent 4thYear seminar. Congrats to all for completing these milestones!

The Kennemur Group welcomes Charlie Womack  (B.S. in Chemistry, University of West Florida). Welcome to the team!

Kennemur has been honored with the 2024-2025 William R. Jones Outstanding Mentor Award supported by the Florida Education Fund (FEF). This award recognizing faculty members who have provided exceptional guidance to McKnight Doctoral Fellows. Nath-Eddy, a McKnight Fellow, graciously provided the nomination.

Courtney, Skylar, Emily, and JGK have published a comprehensive study on the use of acetyl sulfate as a "soft" sulfonation reagent. They were able convert a precision polymer to a degree of sulfonation at any level (up to 98%), with minimal side reactions. They also completed one of the most in-depth characterization studies to accurately determine DS following post-polymerization modification. This work was published in Macromolecules. Congrats to all!

Courtney successfully defended her disseration entitled "Design, Architecture, & Function of Advanced Polypentenamers". She became the 8th Ph.D. from the Kennemur Lab. Congrats Dr. Leo! Good luck in your post-doc at ASU!

Zana has been selected as a recipient of the Dean's Award for Doctoral Excellence (DADE). This award provides up to 3 years of supplemental salary funding for high achieving doctoral students who are in their 2nd year of graduate school. Congrats!

We bid farewell and congratulations to Skylar Alonzo (B.S. Biochemistry) and Presley Santiago (B.S. Biology) who recently graduated. Thanks for all your hardwork!

Jaehoon was awarded an FSU Graduate Summer Research Fellowship for Collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). This fellowship will allow Jaehoon to travel to ORNL this summer to further his research using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). Congrats!

The Kennemur Group was in full force at the American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting in New Orleans, LA. Zana, Nath, and Jaehoon each presented posters and Courtney gave an oral presentation. JGK co-organized a symposium in the POLY Division on Advances in Ring Opening Polymerization / Ring Closing Depolymerization. Nath won a PMSE Centenntial Poster Award and Courtney won a POLY Best General Papers Oral Presentation Award! Congrats all around!

(open access) A study led by Courtney dives into the dilute solution properties of polynorbornene versus polycyclopentene bottlebrushes and was published in ACS Polymers Au. Herein, we examined the onset of bottlebrush viscosity and radii of of gyration as a function of increasing graft length on two different backbones with identical graft density. Check it out here! Congrats Courtney and team!

JK was awarded a new US Patent for development of new polymeric materials from biomass terpenes in pine sap. This patent covers the successful ROMP of delta-pinene and the resulting macromolecular structures. Full patent details found here.

The POLY/PMSE Student Chapter at FAMU-FSU held their 3rd Annual Polymer Symposium featuring five student talks, over 20 posters, and keynote lectures by Dr. Karen Winey (UPenn) and Dr. Daniel Hallinan (FAMU-FSU). More can be found here.