Professor Sangoro's research focuses on energy and sustainability, ionic liquids, deep eutectic solvents, dynamics of liquids and polymers at interfaces, and broadband dielectric spectroscopy.
Joshua Sangoro began his CBE appointment as a tenured professor and associate chair on August 15, 2022. Sangoro was previously an associate professor and associate department head in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (UT).
He received his doctorate in Experimental Physics in 2010 from the University of Leipzig (Germany) with Professor Friedrich Kremer. His dissertation research focused on studies of ionic liquids by broadband dielectric spectroscopy.
Sangoro worked as a Research Scientist at the University of Leipzig until early 2012 when he joined the Chemical Sciences Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a Postdoctoral Research Associate.
In 2012, he was awarded the Feodor-Lynen Research Fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Sangoro joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the UT in the fall of 2013 as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2019.
He has authored or co-authored over 70 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and he also has contributed to over 70 (28 invited) technical presentations at national and international meetings.
He is a recipient of the ARO Young Investigator Program as well as the NSF CAREER awards, as well as the University of Tennessee-Knoxville’s Tickle College of Engineering Professional Promise in Research Award (2019), the Tom and Ruth Clark Chemical Engineering Excellence Award (2019, the highest honor accorded to chemical and biomolecular engineering faculty for excellence in teaching and research), and the Chancellor’s Award for Professional Promise in Research and Creative Achievement (2021).
Dr. Sangoro's research has been supported by the National Science Foundation (Division of Materials Research - Polymers Program; Division of Materials Research - Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program); Division of Chemistry - DSCM-A Program) Department of Energy (Basic Energy Sciences - Energy Frontier Research Center); and Army Research Office (ARO) (Chemical Sciences - Electrochemistry Program), among others.
The current theme of our research revolves around developing fundamental foundations and techniques to enable rational design of novel safe, efficient, and environmentally benign solvents and electrolytes for energy and sustainability technologies. We are also interested in understanding the impact of interfaces and nanoscale confinement on the dynamics of soft materials in the context of structured liquids and polymers.
Our current research topics can be broadly categorized into three main areas, namely, (i) Dynamics in Mesoscopic Structured Liquids, (ii) Polymers at Interfaces, and (iii) Development of Novel Experimental Approaches to Study Molecular and Ion Dynamics.
Current research topics include:
The nature of the liquid state and emerging properties
Breakthrough electrolytes for energy storage
Interfacial dynamics in polymers
Polymer electrolytes derived from polymerized ionic liquids
Through these research projects, we seek to address a diverse set of fundamental science and engineering questions in the general areas of energy and sustainability.
The general premise of our efforts is that dynamics and transport at and around interfaces typically differ from the bulk values but experimental access to many relevant microscopic features are often very challenging or not yet feasible.
For our studies, broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS) is the main experimental tool, providing access to dynamics spanning over 15 decades in time. From 10-6-107 Hz, BDS employs the lumped circuit measurement approach identical to impedance spectroscopy but with emphasis on polarization effects.
At higher frequencies, we take advantage of standing waves, as well as reflection and transmission characteristics when electromagnetic radiation interacts with matter up to the infrared spectral range.
These approaches make it possible to access dynamics through a broad range starting from timescales dominated by electronic and atomic polarizations all the way to reorientation, hopping and interfacial processes. Our BDS experiments are complemented by rheology, x-ray scattering, calorimetry, Fourier-transform infrared, and Raman spectroscopic techniques.
Structured liquids are ubiquitous in our day-to-day lives and play key roles in diverse chemical engineering technologies ranging from energy storage systems to solvents for chemical processing applications. We seek to employ advanced but complementary experimental techniques to understand how the (i) structure over multiple length-scales, and (ii) dynamics spanning multiple timescales, determine the resulting macroscopic physical properties of structured liquids in bulk and at interfaces. Our current efforts in this area are supported through the National Science Foundation (NSF CHE CSDM-A) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award.
Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences (DOE-BES): This Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) seeks to develop fundamental understanding of (i) solvation and transport properties, (ii) electrode-electrolyte interfaces, and (iii) electron transfer reactions in deep eutectic solvents and soft nanoparticles.
National Science Foundation (NSF DMR Polymers): This project seeks to understand the impact of interfacial interactions on structural and chain dynamics in linear and architecturally complex polymers beyond the mean segmental relaxation times.
Department of Defense, Army Research Office (Young Investigator Program YIP and standard awards): These projects focus on elucidating the role of molecular structure, morphology, and polymer dynamics on charge transport with the goal of developing new design strategies for polymer electrolytes for future energy technologies.
Please contact me if you are interested in joining our group.
Group Members tiles
Publications
Journal Articles
Most recent publications:
Cheng, S., Wojnarowska, Z., Sangoro, J. R., and Paluch, M.* (2021). Influence of Chain Rigidity on Ion Dynamics in Polymerized Ionic Liquids: Insight from High-pressure Dielectric Studies and Free-volume Concept. (Submitted, Macromolecules).
Spittle, S.**, Poe, D., Doherty, B., Kolodziej, C., Heroux, L., Haque, A., Squire, H., Cosby, T.**, Zhang, Y., Fraenza, C., Bhattacharyya, S., Tyagi, M., Peng, J.,Elgammal, R., Zawodzin- ski, T., Tuckerman, M., Greenbaum, S., Gurkan, B., Burda, C., Dadmun, M., Maginn, E., and Sangoro, J. R.* (2021). Correlating Microscopic Heterogeneity and Dynamics in Deep Eutectic Solvents. (Under Revision, Nature Communications).
Kinsey, T.**, Mapesa, E.***, and Sangoro, J. R.* (2021). Correlating the spectral signa- tures of chain relaxations to morphology in phase separated diblock copolymers. (Submitted, Macromolecules).
Kinsey, T.**, Mapesa, E.***, Wang, W., Haung, C., Hong, K., Kilbey, S. M., and Sangoro, J. R.* (2021). Dielectric Relaxations of poly(cis-1,4-isoprene)-b-poly(2-vinylpyridine) block copolymers. (Submitted, Macromolecules).
Harris, M. A.**, Kinsey, T.**, Wagle, D., Baker, G. A., and Sangoro, J. R.* (2021). Evidence of a Liquid-Liquid Transition in a Glass-forming Ionic Liquid. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(11) e2020878118.
Mapesa, E.***, Hamilton, S., Street, D., Cantillo, N., Zawodzinski, T.*, Kilbey, S. M.*, Park, A-H.*, and Sangoro, J. R.* (2021, in press). Dynamics in Polymer Nanocomposites – From Conventional to Self-suspended Hybrid Systems. in: Molecular Mobility of Composites - Ad- vances in Dielectrics. Edited by: Andreas Schoenhals. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg.
Alfurayj, I., Fraenza, C., Zhang, Y., Pandian, R., Hansen, B., Spittle, S., Dean, W., Savinell, R., Gurkan, B., Greenbaum, S. G.*, Maginn, E.*, Sangoro, J. R.*, and Burda, C.* (2021). Solvation Dynamics of Wet Ethaline – Water is the Magic Component. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 125 (31), 8888–8901.
Mapesa, E.***, Cantillo, N., Hamilton, S., Harris, M.**, Zawodzinski, T.*, Park, A-H.*, and Sangoro, J. R.* (2021). Localized and Collective Dynamics in Liquid-like Polyethylenimine- based Nanoparticle Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Materials. Macromolecules, 54, (5) 2296–2305.
Bryce, B.**, Spittle, S.**, Chen, B., Poe, D., Zhang, Y., Klein, J., Horton, A.**, Adhikari, L., Zelovich, T., Doherty, B.W., Gurkan, B., Maginn, E., Ragauskas, A., Dadmun, M., Zawodzinski, T., Baker, G., Tuckerman, M., Savinell, R., and Sangoro, J. R.* (2021). Deep Eutectic Solvents: A Review of Fundamentals and Applications. Chemical Reviews, 121, 1232-1285.
Mapesa, E.***, Shahidi, N., Kremer, F., Doxastakis, E.*, and Sangoro, J. R.* (2021). Inter- facial Dynamics in Supported Ultrathin Polymer Films: From the Solid Substrate to the Free Interface. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 12 (1) 117–125.
Sangoro, J. R.*, Cosby, J. T., Kremer, F. (2016). Rotational and translational diffusion in ionic liquids, in: Dielectric Properties of Ionic Liquids - Advances in Dielectrics. Edited by: Marian Paluch. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg. ISBN: 978-3-319-32489-0.
Frenzel, F., Binder, W.H., Sangoro, J. R., and Kremer, F.* (2016). Glassy dynamics and charge transport in polymeric ionic liquids. , in: Dielectric Properties of Ionic Liquids - Ad- vances in Dielectrics. Edited by: Marian Paluch. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg. ISBN: 978-3- 319-32489-0.
Iacob, C., Sangoro, J. R.*, Kipnusu, W. K., and Kremer, F. (2014). Rotational and transla- tional diffusion of ionic liquids in silica nanopores, in: Dynamics in Geometrical Confinement - Advances in Dielectrics. Edited by: Friedrich Kremer. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg. ISBN 978-3-319-06099-6.
Kipnusu, W.K.* , Kossack, W., Iacob, C., Jasiurkowska, M., Sangoro, J. R., and Kremer, F. (2014). Rotational diffusion of guest molecules confined in uni-directional nanopores, in: Dynamics in Geometrical Confinement - Advances in Dielectrics. Edited by: Friedrich Kremer. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg. ISBN 978-3-319-06099-6.
Serghei, A., Sangoro, J. R., and Kremer, F.* (2012). Broadband dielectric spectroscopy on electrode polarization and its scaling, in: Electrical Phenomena at Interfaces and Biointer- faces: Fundamentals and Applications in Nano-, Bio-, and Environmental Sciences. Edited by: Hiroyuki Ohshima. John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York. ISBN: 978-0-470-58255-8.
Sangoro, J.R.* (2010). Advances in material manipulation by application of electric fields. Contemporary Physics 51 (5) 467.
Kremer, F.*, Serghei, A., Sangoro, J. R., Tress, M., and Mapesa, E. U. (2010) Broadband dielectric spectroscopy in nano-(bio)-physics. Proceedings of the 2010 ESA Annual Meeting on Electrostatics, Paper F1.
Sangoro, J. R.*, Ka¨rger, J., and Kremer, F. (2009). Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy as a tool to study diffusion coefficients in conducting glass-forming systems. Dielectric Newsletter, 24,5.
Sangoro, J.R.*, Iacob, C., Naumov, S., Ka¨rger, J., and Kremer, F. (2009). Broadband dielec- tric spectroscopy as a tool to study diffusion coefficients in conducting glass-forming systems. Diffusion fundamentals III, edited by C. Chmelik, N. Kanellopoulos, J. Ka¨rger, D. Theodorou (Leipziger Universit¨atsverlag, Leipzig).
