The Gopalan Group focusses on using the tools of organic chemistry to design new polymeric materials. We are interested in implementing reactions such as multicomponent reactions that are are highly atom efficient reactions but rarely used in polymer science to create new highly reactive but benign monomers and functional polymers. These polymeric materials have functional groups that impart electronic, electro-optic, dynamic reconfigurability, and biological functions. The classes of materials we study include conjugated polymers for carbon nanotube electronics, thermoplastic vitrimers, polymer brushes for surface/interfacial modification, block copolymer for self and directed self-assembly to create sub- 10 nm features for microelectronics, and polymer coatings for stem cell biology.