Ruben received his Bachelor's degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 2015, where he worked on the fabrication and characterization of DNA-functionalized graphene and carbon nanotube biosensors for early cancer detection applications. Ruben joined the PME in autumn of 2015. He is primarily advised by Dr. Seth Darling at Argonne National Laboratory, and conducts much of his experimental work in the Nealey group.
Ruben researches the basic science of sequential infiltration synthesis (SIS), a materials growth technique that enables inorganic metals and metal oxides to be grown within polymer structures. He applies the basic science of SIS to problems in water treatment and purification. Specifically, Ruben uses SIS to transform block-copolymer self-assembled films into metal oxide nanomeshes with highly regular pore sizes. This metal oxide nanomesh platform can be finely tuned in terms of pore size (5-50 nm) and metal oxide surface chemistry. These filtration devices are used to probe the relationship between pore structure and pore surface chemistry in separations.
The Role of Water Volume Fraction on Water Adsorption in Anion Exchange Membranes
Gervasio Zaldivar, Ruilin Dong, Joan M Montes de Oca, Ge Sun, Riccardo Alessandri, Christopher G Arges, Shrayesh N Patel, Paul F Nealey, Juan J de Pablo, Macromolecules, 2025
Role of Crosslinking and Backbone Segmental Dynamics on Ion Transport in Hydrated Anion-Conducting Polyelectrolytes
Zhongyang Wang, Kai Wang, Christopher Eom, Yuxi Chen, Ge Sun, Mincheol Kim, Joan M Montes de Oca, Dongyue Liang, Kushal Bagchi, Shrayesh N Patel, Juan J de Pablo, Paul F Nealey, Advanced Functional Materials, 2025
IEC-Independent Coupling between Water Uptake and Ionic Conductivity in Anion-Conducting Polymer Films
Joan M Montes de Oca, Ruilin Dong, Gervasio Zaldivar, Ge Sun, Zhongyang Wang, Shrayesh N Patel, Paul F Nealey, Juan J de Pablo, Macromolecules, 2025
Water-mediated ion transport in an anion exchange membrane
Zhongyang Wang, Ge Sun, Nicholas HC Lewis, Mrinmay Mandal, Abhishek Sharma, Mincheol Kim, Joan M Montes de Oca, Kai Wang, Aaron Taggart, Alex B Martinson, Paul A Kohl, Andrei Tokmakoff, Shrayesh N Patel, Paul F Nealey, Juan J de Pablo. Nature Communications. 2025.
Directed self-assembly of block copolymer films on atomically-thin graphene chemical patterns
Chang, TH; Xiong, SS; Jacobberger, RM; Mikael, S; Suh, HS; Liu, CC; Geng, DL; Wang, XD; Arnold, MS; Ma, ZQ; Nealey, PF. Directed self-assembly of block copolymer films on atomically-thin graphene chemical patterns. Scientific Reports. 2016. Vol. 6, Pg. 31407.
Directed self-assembly of high-chi block copolymer for nano fabrication of bit patterned media via s
Xiong, S. S. Chapuis, Y. A. Wan, L. Gao, H. Li, X. Ruiz, R. Nealey, P. F.. Directed self-assembly of high-chi block copolymer for nano fabrication of bit patterned media via s. Nanotechnology. 2016. Vol. 27, Pg. 415601.
Directed Self-Assembly of Triblock Copolymer on Chemical Patterns for Sub-10-nm Nanofabrication via
Xiong, SS; Wan, L; Ishida, Y; Chapuis, YA; Craig, GSW; Ruiz, R; Nealey, PF. Directed Self-Assembly of Triblock Copolymer on Chemical Patterns for Sub-10-nm Nanofabrication via. ACS Nano. 2016. Vol. 10, Pg. 7855–7865.
Roadmap on optical metamaterials
Urbas, A. M. Jacob, Z. Dal Negro, L. Engheta, N. Boardman, A. D. Egan, P. Khanikaev, A. B. Menon, V. Ferrera, M. Kinsey, N. DeVault, C. Kim, J. Shalaev, V. Boltasseva, A. Valentine, J. Pfeiffer, C. Grbic, A. Narimanov, E. Zhu, L. X. Fan, S. H. Alu, A. Poutrina, E. Litchinitser, N. M. Noginov, M. A. MacDonald, K. F. Plum, E. Liu, X. Y. Nealey, P. F. Kagan, C. R. Murray, C. B. Pawlak, D. A. Smolyaninov, I. I. Smolyaninova, V. N. Chanda, D.. Roadmap on optical metamaterials. Journal of Optics. Vol. 18, Pg. 093005.
Post-directed-self-assembly membrane fabrication for in situ analysis of block copolymer structures
J Ren, L E Ocola, R Divan, D A Czaplewski, T Segal-Peretz, S Xiong, R J Kline, C G Arges and P F Nealey. Post-directed-self-assembly membrane fabrication for in situ analysis of block copolymer structures. Nanotechnology. 2016. Vol. 27, Pg. 435303.