Creating Novel Functions on Textiles by Applying Organic Chemistry

Textile chemistry is an applied chemistry in a highly-specialized area of textile materials, applying basic principles of organic, physical, and analytical chemistry and incorporating novel or desired functions and esthetic modifications onto textile materials. The textile materials include fibers, yarns, fabrics, clothing, carpets, upholsteries, composite materials, and beyond. My career as a textile chemist began earlier in the 1980s in China, but I became an independent researcher in 1995, when I was appointed as an assistant professor at the Division of Textiles and Clothing at University of California, Davis, after receiving my Ph.D. in chemistry and postdoctoral training at Auburn University. The focus of research and teaching in my group has been on textile chemistry in the past twenty years, and of course, the achievements made by the group in the area were based on the chemistry as well. Here is a brief summary with a few examples.