Education

B.S., 1976, Florida Institute of Technology
Ph.D. 1980, University of Connecticut

Honors and Awards

Fellow of the Polymer Materials Science and Engineering Division of the American Chemical Society, 2018; USC Educational Foundation Research Award for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering, 2018; Fellow of the Polymer Division of the American Chemical Society, 2016; ACS PMSE Cooperative Research Award in Polymer Science and Engineering, 2016; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2011;  NASA Technology Program Award, 1998;  NASA Technology Achievement Award, 1997;  Los Alamos National Laboratory Distinguished Patent Award, 1997;  Los Alamos National Laboratory Excellence in Industrial Partnership Award, 1996.

Research Interests

Research Areas: Polymer-organic chemistry, new monomer and polymer synthesis, polymer nanocomposites, polymer membranes for fuel cells, electrically conducting polymers, liquid crystalline polymers, controlled radical polymerization.

The underlying theme for all of the work in our group is our ability to synthesize polymers by new methods with properties or combinations of properties not found in existing materials. We simply enjoy making new materials. However, our work extends beyond the synthesis and we characterize the properties of these new materials and test them in potential applications to establish structure-property relationships to further aid in the design of next generation polymers.

Polymer Nanocomposites:

We are developing controlled radical polymerization techniques to design the interfacial properties of polymer nanocomposites. We have developed a toolbox of methods to control the chemistry at the surface of nanoparticles with great precision and use "click" chemistry techniques to introduce functionalities at the surface of nanoparticles which could not survive the polymerization conditions or may interfere with the polymerization. Block copolymerization is also used to establish multilayers at the nanoparticle surface. Our work relies on the use of the controlled radical polymerization technique, RAFT, or reversible addition-fragmentation, chain transfer polymerization. The design of new RAFT agents, surface anchored RAFT agents, and new monomers have allowed us to prepare surface functionalized nanoparticles for many applications.

Fuel Cell Membranes:

We are investigating new polymers for high temperature fuel cell membranes. The polymer membrane is considered the "heart" of a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell and represents a central challenge for the future of fuel cell devices. Polybenzimidazoles imbibed with phosphoric acid are being prepared and tested in fuel cells at temperatures up to 200°C. Our work over the last several years has been focused on a new process that allows high phosphoric acid levels while still maintaining the mechanical strength for these high loaded films. The conductivites and fuel cell performance have increased substantially and now exhibit values suitable for commercial applications.

We have also explored a great deal of new chemistry associated with the basic synthetic methods and new compositions to further improve the basic conductivity of the polymer membrane. The synthesis of new compositions continues with the belief that the polymer plays an important role in the conductivity. An extensive fuel cell test laboratory designed for high temperature membrane testing supports our work in the area. We have also extended this work to investigate electrochemical hydrogen pumping for hydrogen separation and purification application.

Selected Publications

Particle Dispersion Controls the Gas-Separation Properties of Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticle Membranes. H. Lin, M. Singh, K.K. Musard, S.K. Kumar, B.C. Benicewicz. ACS Macro Letters 2025, 14, 872-877. 

Effects of Crystallization on Micro-Mechanical Behavior of Poyethylene Nanocomposites Using Raman Spectroscopy. M. Martell, N.F. Mendez, S. Kumar, A.J. Muller, G. Hurd, V. Sebastian, D. Punihaole, R. Mustafa, L. Aheran, B. Benicewicz, R. Ly, H. Lin, F. Sansoz, L.S. Schadler. Nanocomposites 2025, 11(1), 68-78.  

Superdiffusive Thermal Transport in Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticle Melts. B. Liu, M. Jhalaria, E. Ruzicka, B.C. Benicewicz, S.K. Kumar, G. Fytas, X. Xu. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2024, 133, 248101.

Anisotropic Polybenzimidazole Ion-Solvating Membranes Composed of Aligned Nano-Sheets for Efficient Acid-Alkaline Amphoteric Water Electrolysis. Z. Huang, D. Zhu, B.C. Benicewicz, T. Zhu, J. Liang, T. Zhu, L. Zhang, M. Liu, C. Gao, F. Huang, L Xue. Adv. Energy Materials 2024, 14, 202303481.

Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks: Synthesis, Processing, and Application of Polybenzimidazole (PBI) Membranes. L.A. Murdock, B.C. Benicewicz. ACS Appl. Energy Materials 2024, 7, 239-249.