Congratulations to Anaira on her recent publication exploring how fluorinated side-chain length in copolymer-functionalized electrodes influences electrochemically mediated PFAS capture and release.
Published in Advanced Functional Materials, this study investigated the structure–function relationship of fluorination in PFAS adsorption, aiming to establish a rational design pathway for materials in separating structurally diverse PFAS. The findings reveal that uptake and selectivity are primarily governed by the degree of fluorophilic sites available for interaction, rather than the length of the chains. Molecular simulations also showed that short-chain PFAS favorably adsorb into the polymer matrix, while long-chain PFAS tend to aggregate on the surface of the polymer. This work was conducted in collaboration with Prof. Shukla and the Shukla group.