Research profile

Yi-Ru Chen is a Ph.D. candidate in the Polymer Performance Materials group at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). His research in polymeric materials and chemistry aims to design and synthesize novel thermosetting polymers more amenable to recycling. Furthermore, the study will also direct toward developing novel recyclable coating systems with desired surface energy that can be recycled using chemical depolymerization. His current research interests include synthesizing innovative monomers, novel recyclable polymers, and coating systems.

Academic background

Yi-Ru Chen received his B.Sc. in Chemistry (2016) from Tamkang University and his M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry (2018) from National Sun Yat-sen University. Yi-Ru continued the research as a research assistant on the self-assembly of novel discotic liquid crystals and controllable and homogeneous polymeric coating for applications in the military industry under the supervision of Prof. Chi-Wi Ong. In 2019, Yi-Ru joined the group of Prof. Ken-Tsung Wong as a research assistant at the National Taiwan University under a collaborative industrial project with Kyulux, Inc. (Japan), focusing on developing deep blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence OLED materials. In 2020, Yi-Ru started as a university researcher in Stimuli-responsive Functional Materials & Devices group at TU/e, working on liquid crystal polymer networks as smart surfaces for liquid transfer and chemical communication application under the supervision of Prof. Dick Broer. Currently, Yi-Ru is a Ph.D. researcher conducting research on closed-loop recyclable thermosets and coatings under the guidance of Prof. Željko Tomović and Prof. Catarina Esteves in Polymer Performance Materials (SPM) and Physical Chemistry (SPC) groups at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e).