About

Jonathan Sokolov is a Professor and Graduate Program Director in the Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering at Stony Brook University. His research focuses on understanding interactions between the environment and natural and human-made materials at the nanoscale, including reactions involving single molecules and ultra-thin films on surfaces. His work aims to elucidate structural and chemical transformations that influence critical environmental processes such as corrosion of advanced alloys, the association of hazardous waste with soil or buildings, and the transformation of radioactive materials by microbes. Professor Sokolov emphasizes the importance of developing new methodologies and fostering research partnerships to create innovative tools, software, and knowledge for cross-disciplinary problem-solving. He has held leadership roles as Co-Director of the NSF Materials Research Science & Engineering Center: Polymers at Engineered Interfaces and as Co-Director of NASA Microgravity Processing of Thin Polymer Films. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics in 1983 and his B.S. in Mathematics and Physics in 1976, both from Stony Brook University. His academic and research career is dedicated to advancing understanding in materials science with a focus on environmental applications.

Research topics

• Materials science
• Polymer chemistry
• Chemical engineering
• Composite material
• Chemical physics

Selected publications

• Determination of three characteristic regimes of weakly charged polyelectrolytes monolayers

  Ultramicroscopy · 2008-05-16 · 1 citations

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• The effect of organo clay and adsorbed FeO3 nanoparticles on cells cultured on Ethylene Vinyl Acetate substrates and fibers

  Biomaterials · 2008-10-06 · 39 citations

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• The effects of the fiber alignment on the behavior of rat osteosarcoma and mouse osteoblast cells

  2007-01-01

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  Electrospinning is a promising method to construct biomaterial scaffolds for tissue engineering applications, but the efficacy depends on how the substrate topography affects cell function. In order to test whether the response of normal and cancerous cells differs, we tested the response of mouse osteoblasts (MC3T3-E1) and rat osteosarcoma (ROS). Poly (methyl methacrylate) fibers were electrospun into rectangular meshes with fiber diameters of 8.64 mu on a rigid support. Examination of cell morphology revealed that both types of cells can adhere to the scaffolds. In both cases the cells on the fibers were far more oriented than those on the planar surface. The aspect ration of the MC3T3 cells though was significantly larger than that of the ROS cells, indicating that cancer cells may not be able to adapt to the underlying morphology as easily as normal cells.

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• Interfacial behavior of randomly charged sulfonated polystyrene (PSS) at the air/water interface

  Colloids and Surfaces A Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects · 2007-06-05 · 4 citations

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• Synthesis and Characterization of Alkanethiolate Gold Nanoparticles

  APS · 2004-03-01

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• Characterization of Pd Nanoparticles Produced by One and Two Phase Methods

  APS March Meeting Abstracts · 2004-03-01

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• Surface characterization of cross-linked elastomers by shear modulation force microscopy

  Polymer · 2003-05-01 · 22 citations

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• The Role of Elasticity in the Anomalous Swelling of Polymer Thin Films in Density Fluctuating Supercritical Fluids

  Macromolecules · 2003-06-10 · 71 citations

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  In situ neutron reflectivity was used to investigate the effects of density fluctuations on the solubility of supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) in polymer thin films. Deuterated polystyrene, deuterated polybutadiene, and the corresponding random copolymer, deuterated styrene-random-butadiene copolymer, as well as deuterated poly(methyl methacrylate) were investigated. Data were obtained as a function of pressure under two isothermal conditions (T = 36 and 50 °C). All the polymer films used showed anomalous swelling and CO2 sorption on the density fluctuation ridge in the P−T phase diagram of CO2. We found that the magnitude of the swelling was a function of the elasticity of the films rather than the bulk solubility of CO2. The enhanced miscibility of the rubber/CO2 systems, which are very poor in bulk, was found to be almost identical to that of the silicon rubber/CO2 mixture, which is one of the highly miscible polymeric materials under moderate CO2 conditions.

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• INTERFACIAL AND NANOSTRUCTURAL STUDIES OF POLYMER BLENDS

  2001-05-01 · 1 citations

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• Reduced Mobility of Elastomers near a Solid Surface As Measured by Neutron Reflectometry

  Langmuir · 2001-06-09 · 10 citations

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  The effects of an interacting, hydrophobic silicon surface on the interfacial properties of the immiscible polymer blend polybutadiene (PB) and brominated poly(isobutylene-co-p-methylstyrene) (BIMS) were studied using neutron reflectivity (NR). The results show that an adsorbed polymer layer, approximately 2Rg (Rg is the radius of gyration) thick, is always present at the silicon interface. This observation confirms the existence of an immobile gel-like layer which was invoked by numerous authors to explain the reduced dynamics and anomalous rheological properties of polymers at long distances from interactive substrates. The attractive substrate was also shown to affect the equilibrium interfacial width between the immiscible polymers. Narrowing of the interfacial width was observed only when the layer adjacent to the silicon substrate was less than 3Rg thick, indicating that only chains in direct contact with the interface were affected.

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Frequent coauthors

• Miriam Rafailovich

  Stony Brook University

  39 shared

• Sushil K. Satija

  National Institute of Standards and Technology

  28 shared

• Dennis G. Peiffer

  19 shared

• Yimin Zhang

  Kunming University of Science and Technology

  17 shared

• Z. Li

  ExxonMobil (United States)

  16 shared

• K. O. McElrath

  ExxonMobil (United States)

  16 shared

• Shouren Ge

  16 shared

• D. Nguyen

  Le Mans Université

  16 shared

Education

• Ph.D.

  State University of New York at Stony Brook

  1983

• B.S., Mathematics and Physics

  State University of New York at Stony Brook

  1976

Awards & honors

• Co-Director, NSF Materials Research Science & Engineering Ce…
• Co-Director, NASA Microgravity Processing of Thin Polymer Fi…
• Outstanding graduating student award, Physics Department