Directory

Charles Sing's directory photo.

Charles Sing

Associate Professor

Primary Affiliation

Artificial Intelligence for Materials

Affiliations

Status Part-time Faculty

Home Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Phone

Email cesing@illinois.edu

Address 3251 Beckman Institute, 405 North Mathews Avenue

  • Biography

    Charles E. Sing is an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. His primary affiliation is Artificial Intelligence for Materials. He studies charged polymers, polymer dynamics, and biophysics. Professor Sing and his team use both theoretical and computational tools to tackle fundamental problems in polymer physics and develop design principles for bio-inspired soft materials.

    Education

    • B.S.E., Case Western Reserve University, 2008

    • M.S., Case Western Reserve University, 2008

    • Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012

  • Honors

    • 2020: Helen Corley Petit Scholar

    • 2020: AIChE 35 Under 35

    • 2020: ACS PMSE Young Investigator

    • 2018: U.S. Frontiers of Engineering, NAE

    • 2017: NSF CAREER Award

    • 2015: Forbes 30 Under 30 for Science

    • 2014-2015: College of Engineering Academy of Excellence in Engineering Education, Collins Scholar

    • 2013: MIT DMSE Best PhD Thesis Award

    • 2012: International Institute for Nanotechnology Postdoctoral Fellowship

    • 2009-2012: National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship

    • 2008: MIT/Dupont Alliance Presidential Fellowship

  • Research

    Research areas:

    • Computer simulations of polymer dynamics and equilibrium

    • Statistical mechanics and dynamics of charged polymer systems

    • Physical chemistry of biological polymers

    • Polymer solution rheology and dynamics

    • Polymer architecture

    • Sequence-Defined Polymers

    Research interests:

    • Polymer physics

    • Statistical mechanics

    • Computer simulation

    His research group seeks to use coarse-grained models to understand the emergent physics of polymer or biophysical systems, and then use the resulting insights to guide the design of new materials. Current research efforts are focused on problems that are challenging because they span large length and time scales, and new theory or simulation methods are necessary to yield new fundamental physical principles.

  • 2023

    • Choi, S.; Knoerdel, A.R.; Sing, C.E.; Keating, C.D. “Effect of Polypeptide Complex Coacervate Microenvironment on Protonation of a Guest Molecule.” J. Phys. Chem. B. 2023. In Press.
    • Lin, T.-W.; Mei, B.; Schweizer, K.; Sing, C.E. “Simulation Study of the Effects of Polymer Network Dynamics and Mesh Confinement on the Diffusion and Structural Relaxation of Penetrants.” J. Chem. Phys. 2023. In Press.
    • Madinya, J.J.; Tjo, H.; Meng, X.Z.; Ramírez-Marrero, I.; Sing, C.E.; Perry, S.L. “Surface Charge Density and Steric Repulsion in Polyelectrolyte-Surfactant Coacervation.” Macromolecules. 2023. Online.
    • Mei, B.; Lin, T.-W.; Sheridan, G.; Evans, C.M.; Sing, C.E.; Schweizer, K.S. “How Segmental Dynamics and Mesh Confinement Determine the Selective Diffusivity of Molecules in Crosslinked Dense Polymer Networks.” ACS Cent. Sci. 2023. 9, 508-518.
    • Mei, B.; Lin, T.-W.; Sing, C.E.; Schweizer, K.S. “Self-Consistent Hopping Theory of Activated Relaxation and Diffusion of Dilute Penetrants in Dense Crosslinked Networks.” J. Chem. Phys. 2023. 158, 184901.
    • Sing, C.E.; Qin, J. “Bridging Field Theory and Ion Pairing in the Modeling of Polyelectrolytes and Complex Coacervation.” Macromolecules 2023. In Press.

    2022

    • Blocher McTigue, W.C.; Sing, C.E. “Competing Time Scales in Surface-Driven Solution Depolymerization” Macromolecules 2022. 55, 8998-9010. Link.
    • Madinya, J.J.; Sing, C.E. “Hybrid Field Theory and Particle Simulation Model of Polyelectrolyte-Surfactant Coacervation.” Macromolecules 2022. 55, 2358. Link.
    • Mei, B.; Lin, T.-W.; Sheridan, G.; Evans, C.M.; Sing, C.E.; Schweizer, K.S. “Structural Relaxation and Vitrification in Dense Crosslinked Polymer Networks: Simulation, Theory and Experiment” Macromolecules 2022. 55, 4159-4173. Link.
    • Pan, T.; Dutta, S.; Kamble, Y.; Patel, B.; Wade, M.; Rogers, S.A.; Diao, Y.; Guironnet, D.S.; Sing, C.E. “Materials Design of Highly-Branched Bottlebrush Polymers at the Intersection of Modeling, Synthesis, Processing, and Characterization” Chem. Mater. 2022. 34, 1990. Link.
    • Pan, T.; Dutta, S.; Sing, C.E. “Interaction Potentials for Coarse-Grained Models of Bottlebrush Polymers.” J. Chem. Phys. 2022. J. Chem. Phys. 2022. 156, 014903. Link.
    • Patel, B.; Pan, T.; Chang, Y.; Walsh, D.; Kwok, J.; Park, K.S.; Patel, K.; Guironnet, D.; Sing, C.E.; Diao, Y. “Concentration-Driven Self-Assembly of PS-b-PLA Bottlebrush Diblock Copolymers in Solution.” ACS Poly. Au. 2022. 2, 232-244. Link.

    2021

    • Knoerdel, A.R.; Blocher McTigue W.C.; Sing, C.E. “Transfer Matrix Model of pH Effects in Polymeric Complex Coacervation.” J. Phys. Chem. Part B. 2021. 125, 8965-8980. Link.
    • Pan, T., Patel, B., Walsh, D.J., Dutta, S., Guironnet, D., Diao, Y., Sing, C.E. “Implicit Side-Chain Model and Experimental Characterization of Bottlebrush Block Copolymer Solution Assembly.” Macromolecules. 2021. 54, 3620-3633. Link.
    • Young, C.E.; Zhou, Y.; Schroeder, C.M.; Sing, C.E. “Dynamics and Rheology of Ring-Linear Semidilute Solutions in Extensional Flow: Modeling and Molecular Simulations.” J. Rheology. 2021. 65, 757-777. Link.
    • Zhou, Y.; Young, C.E.; Lee, M.; Banik, S.; Kong, D.; McKenna, G.B.; Robertson-Anderson, R.; Sing, C.E.; Schroeder, C.M. “Dynamics and Rheology of Ring-Linear Semidilute Solutions in Extensional Flow: Single Molecules Experiments.” J. Rheology. 2021. 65, 729-744. Link.

    2020

    • 55. Perry, S.L., Sing, C.E. “100th Anniversary of Macromolecular Science Viewpoint: Opportunities in the Physics of Sequence-Defined Polymers.” ACS Macro Lett. 2020. 9, 216-225. Link.
    • Bello, L., Sing, C.E. “Mechanisms of Diffusive Charge Transport in Redox-Active Polymer Solutions.” Macromolecules. 2020. 53, 7658-7671. Link.
    • Dutta, S., Sing, C.E. “Two Stretching Regimes in the Elasticity of Bottlebrush Polymers” Macromolecules. 2020. 53, 6946-6955. Link.
    • Liu, Y., Santa Chalarca, C., Carmean, R., Olson, R., Madinya, J., Sumerlin, B., Sing, C.E., Emrick, T., Perry, S.L. “Effect of Polymer Chemistry on the Linear Viscoelasticity of Complex Coacervates.” Macromolecules. 2020. 53, 7851-7864. Link.
    • Madinya, J.J., Chang, L.-W., Perry, S.L., Sing, C.E. “Sequence-dependent self-coacervation in high charge-density polyampholytes.” Mol. Syst. Des. Eng. 2020. Online. DOI: 10.1039/C9ME00074G. Link.
    • Patel, S.F., Young, C.D., Sing, C.E., Schroeder, C.M. “Non-monotonic Dependence of Comb Polymer Relaxation on Branch Density in Semidilute Solutions of Linear Polymers.” Phys. Rev. Fluids. 2020. 5, 121301. Link.
    • Sing, C.E. “Micro- to Macro-Phase Separation Transition in Sequence-Defined Coacervates.” J. Chem. Phys. 2020. 152, 024902. Link.
    • Sing, C.E., Perry, S.L. “Recent Progress in the Science of Complex Coacervation” Soft Matter. 2020. 16, 2885-2914. Link.

    2019

    • Dahlke, K., Sing, C.E. “Influence of Nucleoid Associated Proteins on DNA Supercoiling.” J. Phys. Chem. B. 2019. 123, 10152-10162. Link.
    • Dahlke, K., Zhou, J., Sing, C.E., Banigan, E. “Force-dependent facilitated dissociation can generate protein-DNA catch bonds.” Biophys. J. 2019. 117, 1085-1100. Link.
    • Dutta, S., Pan, T., Sing, C.E. “Bridging Simulation Length Scales of Bottlebrush Polymers Using a Wormlike Cylinder Model” Macromolecules 2019. 52, 4858-4874.Link.
    • Dutta, S., Wade, M.A., Walsh, D.J., Guironnet, D., Rogers, S.A., Sing, C.E. “Dilute Solution Structure of Bottlebrush Polymers” Soft Matter 2019. 15, 2928-2941. Link.
    • Kim, A., Zhou, S., Yao, L., Ni, S., Luo, B. Sing, C.E., Chen, Q. “Tip-Patched Nanoprisms from Formation of Ligand Islands.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019. 141, 11796-11800. Link.
    • Lytle, T.K., Chang, L.-W., Markiewicz, N., Perry, S.L., Sing, C.E. “Designing Electrostatic Interactions via Polyelectrolyte Monomer Sequence” ACS Central Science 2019. 5, 709-718. Link.
    • Ong, G.M.C., Sing, C.E. “Mapping the Phase Behavior of Coacervate-Driven Self-Assembly in Diblock Copolyelectrolytes.” Soft Matter 2019. 15, 5116-5127. Link.
    • Walsh, D.J., Dutta, S., Sing, C.E., Guironnet, S. “Engineering of Molecular Geometry in Bottlebrush Polymers.” Macromolecules 2019. 52, 4847-4857.Link.
    • Young, C.D., Qian, J., Marvin, M.D., Sing, C.E. “Ring Polymer Dynamics and Tumbling-Stretch Transitions in Planar Mixed Flows” Phys. Rev. E. 2019. 99, 062502. Link.
    • Young, C.D., Sing, C.E. “Simulation of semidilute polymer solutions in planar extensional flow via conformationally averaged Brownian noise.” J. Chem. Phys. 2019. 151, 124907. Link.

    2018

    • Dahlke, K., Sing, C.E. “Force-Extension Behavior of DNA in the presence of DNA-Bending Nucleoid Associated Proteins” J. Chem. Phys. 2018. 148. 084902. Link.
    • Lytle, T.K., Salazar, A., Sing, C.E. “Interfacial Properties of Polymeric Complex Coacervates from Simulation and Theory” J. Chem. Phys. 2018. 149. 163315. Link.
    • Lytle, T.K., Sing, C.E. “Tuning Interaction Entropy in Complex Coacervation Using Polymer Stiffness, Architecture, and Salt Valency.” Mol. Syst. Des. Eng. 2018. Online. Special Issue: Emerging Investigators. Link.
    • Young, C.D., Marvin, M.D., Sing, C.E. “Conformationally averaged iterative Brownian dynamics simulations of semidilute polymer solutions” J. Chem. Phys. 2018. 149. 174904. Link.