Rowan Group

Chuqiao (Elise) Chen

Graduate Student
Contact: elisechen@uchicago.edu

Chuqiao (Elise) Chen, was born and raised in Beijing, China. She attended Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, and graduated with a BS degree in chemistry in 2018. While in college, she worked on antifouling surface coatings through Amgen Scholars Program at UTokyo and cellulose nanocrystal composite materials while exchanging at the University of Chicago. She came back to the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering as a graduate student in 2018 co-advised by Professor Rowan and Professor de Pablo. In her spare time, Elise enjoys tap dancing and playing the piano.

Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are crosslinked polymer networks made from liquid crystal (LC) monomers. Inheriting the phase transition behavior and the alignment control of liquid crystals, LCE materials demonstrate unusual mechanical properties and stimuli-responsive behavior. For example, when heated through nematic to isotropic transition temperature, monodomian LCEs undergo contraction along the nematic director, converting thermal energy to mechanical work. Elise studies liquid crystal polymer network materials through synthesis, characterization and modeling. In particular, she is interested in reversible networks employing dynamic covalent chemistry and the shape memory properties of LCEs.

Chuqiao (Elise) Chen

Graduate Student

Vinylogous Urea—Urethane Vitrimers: Accelerating and Inhibiting Network Dynamics through Hydrogen Bonding

Robust and Programmable Liquid Crystal Elastomers through Catalytic Control of Dynamic Aza-Michael Reactions

Exploring the effect of dynamic bond placement in liquid crystal elastomers

Leveraging the Polymer Glass Transition to Access Thermally Switchable Shear Jamming Suspensions