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Meet the authors:  Dr Ali Al Alshaikh and Dr Jason Bara

20 Aug 2025
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Read their recent paper ‘Tuning solvent strength can fractionate PVC into ultra-low molecular weight material with low dispersity’.

Dr Ali Al Alshaikh and Dr Jason Bara have developed a method to fractionate PVC into materials with different molecular weights by adjusting solvent strength, rather than simply dissolving all the polymer at once. Their innovative work supports the goal of creating a circular economy for plastic materials, where waste can be effectively reprocessed into useful products.

Learn more about their research in our interview below.

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Meet the authors of ‘Development of casein-based nanonutraceuticals by entrapping anthocyanin derived from secondary-agricultural residues: A step towards functional food additives’

24 Jun 2025
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To celebrate the growth and development of the RSC Applied Polymers community and to highlight the remarkable authors who continue to contribute their high quality work to the journal we would like to share the opinions and insights of these authors through this introductory blog post. Once dubbed #RSCAppliedfirst50, our blog posts aim to give a voice to the authors behind the research and hope that their insights might shed light upon growing challenges and progress in polymer science and its applications.

In this edition, we hear from Dr Jayeeta Bhaumik about their study entitled ‘Development of casein-based nanonutraceuticals by entrapping anthocyanin derived from secondary-agricultural residues: A step towards functional food additives‘

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Congratulations to the prize winners at Dan Eley Symposium 2025

12 Jun 2025
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The 2025 Dan Eley Postdoctoral Research Symposium took place at the University of Nottingham on 22 May 2025. RSC Applied Polymers, RSC Advances and Polymer Chemistry were pleased to support prizes at this event and we would like to congratulate our winners!

Welcome Foyer for Dan Eley event.

Welcome Foyer for Dan Eley event.

Meet our prize winners!

Photo of prize winner Madasamy Thangamuthu.

RSC Applied Polymers Prize

Dr Madasamy Thangamuthu

Dr Madasamy Thangamuthu is a Research Fellow in Electrocatalysis, currently working with Professor Andrei Khlobystov’s Nottingham Nanomaterials research group at the School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham (Park campus) since July 2022. Prior to his move to Nottingham, he was part of Professor Junwang Tang’s Solar Energy and Advanced Materials Research Group at the Department of Chemical Engineering, University College London (UCL) from 2019 to 2022. He also conducted research at the Nanophotonics and Metrology Laboratory (NAM) in the Department of Microengineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, from 2015 to 2019. Dr. Thangamuthu earned his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry from Madurai Kamaraj University, India, in 2010 and 2014, respectively, and received his B.Sc. in Chemistry from Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, India, in 2008.

His research primarily focuses on sustainable fuel synthesis through Photocatalysis, Electrocatalysis, and Photoelectrocatalysis. Specifically, he is developing next-generation catalysts for green hydrogen production from water splitting and ammonia decomposition, CO2 reduction into liquid fuels and high-value chemicals, and green ammonia synthesis using earth-abundant materials.
Photo of prize winner Joseph Ogar.RSC Advances Prize

Dr Joseph Ogar

Dr Joseph Ogar began his academic career in 2013 as a graduate assistant at the Department of Chemistry, University of Calabar, following his First Degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 2010. He earned his Master’s degree in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Calabar in 2016.

In 2017, Dr Ogar joined the research group of Professor Neil Champness at the University of Nottingham, where he completed his PhD in 2021, working on redox-active metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). He later served as a full-time lecturer at Nottingham Trent University during the 2023/2024 academic session and currently holds an hourly-paid lecturer position there. In addition to his teaching roles, he has completed two postdoctoral fellowships and is presently a lab manager and postdoctoral research associate (PDRA) in the Cliffe’s Group at the University of Nottingham.

Dr Ogar’s research interests span the synthesis of redox-active ligands, developing porous open framework materials, and electrosynthesis of BEDT-TTF salts and two-dimensional MOFs with interesting electronic and magnetic properties.
Photo of prize winner Benjamin Weare.Polymer Chemistry Prize

Dr Benjamin Weare

Dr Benjamin Weare is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre, where he works as an electron microscopist. He has a strong interest in the intersection of practical electron microscopy, software development, and data science. His current research involves adapting transmission electron microscopes to work as electron diffractometers, in order to solve crystal structure from nanomaterials not suitable for X-ray methods. His Masters and PhD blended synthetic chemistry and electron microscopy, studying the nanoscale properties of small molecules and framework polymers at the University of Nottingham. In his free time he enjoys reading literature and writing for his blog.

We’d like to congratulate all the prize winners once more, it’s a great achievement for their work to be selected from all the excellent research presented at the event.  We’d also like to thank all organisers, especially Dr James Pearce for organising this conference.

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Meet the authors of ‘Advances in Vat Photopolymerization: Early-Career Researchers Shine Light on a Path Forward’

13 May 2025
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To celebrate the growth and development of the RSC Applied Polymers community and to highlight the remarkable authors who continue to contribute their high quality work to the journal we would like to share the opinions and insights of these authors through this introductory blog post. Once dubbed #RSCAppliedfirst50, our blog posts aim to give a voice to the authors behind the research and hope that their insights might shed light upon growing challenges and progress in polymer science and its applications.

In this edition, we hear from Hayden E. Fowler and Max Saccone in a short introduction about their study ‘Advances in Vat Photopolymerization: Early-Career Researchers Shine Light on a Path Forward’

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Editor’s Choice collection: Rachel Auzély-Velty

17 Apr 2025
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Professor Rachel Auzély-Velty (University Grenoble Alpes, France), Associate Editor for RSC Applied Polymers, is delighted to share with you some of her top research highlights published in the journal so far.

 

Read the collection

 

Loosely connected to her expertise in polysaccharides and of biomaterials, here are a selection of the papers she has chosen:

 

Recent progress in the development of conductive hydrogels and the application in 3D printed wearable sensors

Yuxuan Lin, Ruxue Yang and Xin Wu

 

 

 

 

Targeted release of live probiotics from alginate-based nanofibers in a simulated gastrointestinal tract

Emily Diep and Jessica D. Schiffman

 

 

Sonication labile PEG-based hydrogel system for biological component suspension and subsequent degradation

Meagan N. Arguien, Joshua T. Kamps, Sarah A. Muth, Marianela Trujillo-Lemon and Christopher N. Bowman

 

 

 

 

 

Professor Auzély-Velty shared a video last year to introduce herself:

 

Find out more about Rachel Auzély-Velty

Rachel Auzély-Velty is full Professor at Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA). She is leading the group “Structure and Modification of Polysaccharides” in CERMAV-CNRS (Grenoble) where she was recruited as a CNRS researcher in 1999 before being promoted to full Professor at UGA in 2005. Her research interests lie in the fields of chemistry and physico-chemistry of polysaccharides and of biomaterials (especially hydrogels). Potential target applications include controlled and targeted drug delivery, cell therapy and tissue engineering. She has published more than 110 papers related to polysaccharide chemistry in international journals, 6 book chapters, and 14 patents.

 

Discover some of Rachel’s research published in RSC journals:

A cross-linkable and resorbable PEDOT-based ink using a hyaluronic acid derivative as dopant for flexible bioelectronic devices

Maxime Leprince, Simon Regal, Pascal Mailley, Fabien Sauter-Starace, Isabelle Texier and Rachel Auzély-Velty

Mater. Adv., 2023. DOI: 10.1039/D3MA00170A

 

Self-crosslinking smart hydrogels through direct complexation between benzoxaborole derivatives and diols from hyaluronic acid

Tamiris Figueiredo, Yu Ogawa, Jing Jing, Vanina Cosenza, Isabelle Jeacomine, Johan D. M. Olsson, Thibaud Gerfaud, Jean-Guy Boiteau, Craig Harris and Rachel Auzély-Velty

Polym. Chem., 2020. DOI: 10.1039/D0PY00308E

 

Boronic acid and diol-containing polymers: how to choose the correct couple to form “strong” hydrogels at physiological pH

Tamiris Figueiredo, Vanina Cosenza, Yu Ogawa, Isabelle Jeacomine, Alicia Vallet, Sonia Ortega, Raphael Michel, Johan D. M. Olsson, Thibaud Gerfaud, Jean-Guy Boiteau, Jing Jing, Craig Harris and Rachel Auzély-Velty

Soft Matter, 2020. DOI: 10.1039/D0SM00178C

 

RSC Applied Polymers

Offers you an impactful platform for research focusing on the application of polymers, both natural and synthetic.

Read the latest issues online here a find out more by visiting our webpage or contacting our Editorial Office by email.

Make sure you never miss an update – sign up for our e-alerts and follow us on X, Bluesky and LinkedIn.

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Editor’s Choice collection: Pengfei Cao

17 Apr 2025
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Professor Pengfei Cao (Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China), Associate Editor for RSC Applied Polymers, is delighted to share with you some of his top research highlights published in the journal so far.

 

Read the collection

 

Loosely connected to his expertise in synthetic polymers for energy-related applications, here are a selection of the papers he has chosen:

 

Valorization of plastic waste via chemical activation and carbonization into activated carbon for functional material applications

Rachel Blanchard and Tizazu H. Mekonnen

 

 

Photopatternable, degradable, and performant polyimide network substrates for e-waste mitigation

Caleb J. Reese, Grant M. Musgrave, Jitkanya Wong, Wenyang Pan, John Uehlin, Mason Zadan, Omar M. Awartani, Thomas J. Wallin and Chen Wang

 

 

 

Poly(ionic liquid) ABC triblock and ABCBA pentablock terpolymer electrolytes for lithium metal batteries

Dohyun Kim, Rui Sun, Roger Tocchetto, Carl Willis, Bert Krutzer, Frederick L. Beyer and Yossef A. Elabd

 

 

 

 

Professor Cao shared a video last year to introduce himself:

 

Find out more about Pengfei Cao

Pengfei Cao is a full Materials Science and Engineering professor at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT, China). After his Ph.D. in the Macro department at Case Western Reserve University, USA, he moved to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL, USA) and had been a staff scientist since 2019. Pengfei has also been awarded the R&D 100 Award of 2021, the ACS-PMSE Young-Investigator Award of 2021 and the ACS Rising Star in Materials Science of 2023. Pengfei leads the research group of Energy-Applied Elastomers. His current research interests are synthetic elastic polymers for energy-related applications, including functional elastomers (e.g., recyclable, self-healing, impact-resistant or adhesive elastomers) and energy-storage applications (e.g., polymer electrolytes/binders and polymeric protective layers).

 

Discover some of Pengfei’s research published in RSC journals:

Construction of an ultrathin multi-functional polymer electrolyte for safe and stable all-solid-state batteries

Youjia Zhang, Tianhui Cheng, Shilun Gao, Hang Ding, Zhenxi Li, Lin Li, Dandan Yang, Huabin Yang and Peng-Fei Cao

Mater. Horiz., 2024. DOI: 10.1039/D4MH01037J

 

In situ construction of an ultra-thin and flexible polymer electrolyte for stable all-solid-state lithium-metal batteries

Shilun Gao, Mengxiang Ma, Youjia Zhang, Lin Li, Shuangshuang Zhu, Yayue He, Dandan Yang, Huabin Yang and Peng-Fei Cao

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2024. DOI: 10.1039/D3TA07586A

 

Polymer electrolytes with high cation transport number for rechargeable Li–metal batteries: current status and future direction

Xinyuan Shan, Zhaowei Song, Hang Ding, Lengwan Li, Yuhang Tian, Alexei P. Sokolov, Ming Tian, Kang Xu and Peng-Fei Cao

Energy Environ. Sci., 2024. DOI: 10.1039/D4EE03097D

 

RSC Applied Polymers

Offers you an impactful platform for research focusing on the application of polymers, both natural and synthetic.

Read the latest issues online here a find out more by visiting our webpage or contacting our Editorial Office by email.

Make sure you never miss an update – sign up for our e-alerts and follow us on X, Bluesky and LinkedIn.

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Editor’s Choice collection: Emily Pentzer

17 Apr 2025
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Professor Emily Pentzer (Texas A&M University, US), Editor-in-Chief for RSC Applied Polymers, is delighted to share with you some of her top research highlights published in the journal so far.

 

Read the collection

 

Below is a selection of the papers she has chosen:

Radical polymers in optoelectronic and spintronic applications

Hyunki Yeo, Suman Debnath, Baiju P. Krishnan and Bryan W. Boudouris

 

 

 

 

Tuning the thermal response of 3D-printed bilayer hydrogels via architectural control using binary ethanol–water solvent systems

Francis Klincewicz, Subhash Kalidindi and LaShanda T. J. Korley

 

 

 

 

Creation of three-dimensional composite architectures via high-intensity focused ultrasound inside of foams

Chang-Uk Lee, Jianxun Cui, Hridyesh R. Tewani, Pavana Prabhakar and Andrew J. Boydston

 

 

 

 

 

Professor Pentzer shared a video last year to introduce herself:

 

Find out more about Emily Pentzer

Emily Pentzer is a full Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University. Her research centres on developing new polymeric materials and assemblies as a route to understanding structure-property-application relationships and access functions not possible with current state-of-the-art systems. Her group works on the encapsulation of “active” liquids and gases, designing and synthesizing new polymer chemistries, and developing feedstocks for additive manufacturing to produce multifunctional materials.

She received a Young Investigator Award from the Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering (PMSE) Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in 2017, the Rising Star Award in 2019 from the ACS Women’s Chemist Committee, and the Faculty Diversity Excellence Award from Case Western Reserve University in 2019. She was named a Texas A&M Presidential Impact Fellow in 2021 and a finalist for the Blavatnik Award in physical sciences and engineering in 2022. She served as an Associate Editor for Polymer Chemistry from 2015 – 2023.

 

Discover some of Emily’s research published in RSC journals

Direct ink writing of polyimide aerogels for battery thermal mitigation

Ciera E. Cipriani, Donald A. Dornbusch, Stephanie L. Vivod and Emily B. Pentzer

RSC Appl. Polym., 2024. DOI: 10.1039/D3LP00200D

 

Microcapsule fabrication by ATRP at the interface of non-aqueous emulsions

Nicholas C. Starvaggi, Chase B. Somodi, Eliandreina Cruz Barrios, Patrick J. Shamberger and Emily B. Pentzer

Chem. Commun., 2024. DOI: 10.1039/D4CC00736K

 

Bridging polymer architecture, printability, and properties by digital light processing of block copolycarbonates

Krista G. Schoonover, Chia-Min Hsieh, Mani Sengoden, Naushad Ahmed, Manivannan Sivaperuman Kalairaj, Taylor H. Ware, Donald J. Darensbourg, Emily B. Pentzer and Peiran Wei

Chem. Sci., 2024. DOI: 10.1039/D4SC04593A

 

RSC Applied Polymers

Offers you an impactful platform for research focusing on the application of polymers, both natural and synthetic.

Read the latest issues online here a find out more by visiting our webpage or contacting our Editorial Office by email.

Make sure you never miss an update – sign up for our e-alerts and follow us on X, Bluesky and LinkedIn.

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Meet the authors of ‘Sidechain engineering in poly(2,3-alkylthieno[3,4-b]pyrazine)s via GRIM polymerization: Solubility, film formation, and device performance’

09 Apr 2025
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To celebrate the growth and development of the RSC Applied Polymers community and to highlight the remarkable authors who continue to contribute their high quality work to the journal we would like to share the opinions and insights of these authors through this introductory blog post. Once dubbed #RSCAppliedfirst50, our blog posts aim to give a voice to the authors behind the research and hope that their insights might shed light upon growing challenges and progress in polymer science and its applications.

In this edition, we hear from Professor Seth C. Rasmussen in a short interview about their study ‘Sidechain engineering in poly(2,3-alkylthieno[3,4-b]pyrazine)s via GRIM polymerization: Solubility, film formation, and device performance’

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Hear from the authors of ‘3D Printable Polymer Foams with Tunable Expansion and Mechanical Properties Enabled by Catalyst-Free Dynamic Covalent Chemistry’

19 Feb 2025
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To celebrate the growth and development of the RSC Applied Polymers community and to highlight the remarkable authors who continue to contribute their high quality work to the journal we would like to share the opinions and insights of these authors through this introductory blog post. Once dubbed #RSCAppliedfirst50, our blog posts aim to give a voice to the authors behind the research and hope that their insights might shed light upon growing challenges and progress in polymer science and its applications.

In this edition, we hear from Rebecca Johnson and Ariel Tolfree, about their study entitled ‘3D Printable Polymer Foams with Tunable Expansion and Mechanical Properties Enabled by Catalyst-Free Dynamic Covalent Chemistry’

 

Hear from our authors: Rebecca M. Johnson and Ariel R. Tolfree

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Meet the authors of ‘Polymer electrolytes: evolution, challenges, and future directions for lithium-ion batteries’

19 Feb 2025
By .

 

To celebrate the growth and development of the RSC Applied Polymers community and to highlight the remarkable authors who continue to contribute their high quality work to the journal we would like to share the opinions and insights of these authors through this introductory blog post. Once dubbed #RSCAppliedfirst50, our blog posts aim to give a voice to the authors behind the research and hope that their insights might shed light upon growing challenges and progress in polymer science and its applications.

In this edition, we hear from Professor Achalkumar Ammathnadu Sudhakar, about their study entitled ‘Polymer electrolytes: evolution, challenges, and future directions for lithium-ion batteries’

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