Polymer Chemistry Blog

Junpeng Wang received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2010 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry (advisor: Prof. Stephen Craig) from Duke University in 2015. He then worked with Prof. Luping Yu at the University of Chicago and Prof. Jeremiah Johnson at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Postdoc before joining the University of Akron as an Assistant Professor of Polymer Science in 2019. Currently, his research is focused on how molecular information like molecular structures and intermolecular and intramolecular interactions impact macroscopic material properties. In particular, Junpeng brought new insights into the design of sustainable polymers by applying physical organic chemistry and polymer mechanochemistry approaches.

Read Junpeng’s Emerging Investigator article, Bulk depolymerization of graft polymers based on trans-cyclobutane-fused cyclooctene, DOI D3PY00812F. 

Check out our interview with Junpeng below:

How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

Polymer Chemistry is a journal that publishes solid work on innovative polymer chemistry research, and I am very pleased that our discovery on the bulk depolymerization of graft polymers can be published in Polymer Chemistry.  

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

I am actively working on solutions for sustainable polymers, and I am most excited that by applying principles in physical organic chemistry, we can bring new insights into the design of sustainable polymers. Sustainable polymers need to be competitive in properties and cost in order to replace current polymers. While my training allows me to study structure-property relationships to optimize material properties, I find it challenging to also take into account the cost and scalability. This is a grand challenge for the entire field of sustainable polymers, and I enjoy tackling the challenges.  

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

How can we design polymers that show material properties comparable to current ones while having the potential for industrial production?

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

There are many tasks for an us early career scientist, and some of them might not be so enjoyable. We need to make sure that we spend time on the things you are most excited about everyday so that we stay motivated. 

Keep up with Junpeng’s research by checking out his website or following him on X @JPChem1.

Annalisa Chiappone is Assistant Professor in Industrial Chemistry in the Department of Chemical Science and Geology of the University of Cagliari since October 2021. With a background on materials engineering, she obtained her Ph.D. in Materials Science from Politecnico di Torino in 2012 with a Thesis on photocured polymer electrolytes membranes reinforced with natural fibers for Li-ion batteries. Afterwards, she moved to the Italian Institute of Technology, Center for Sustainable Future Technologies. She worked on the development of functional polymeric materials for different applications including sensors and materials for energy and electronics. In 2015 she moved her interests towards the development of smart formulations for 3D printing. In 2018, she moved back to Politecnico di Torino as researcher to set up a platform dedicated to 3D printing specifically focused on light activated reactions. She has now moved her research to the University of Cagliari where she is exploiting the chemistry facilities to improve the study on polymeric materials for advanced applications. Her interest are focused on photocurable polymers and light-induced 3D printing, she recently focused on the modification of natural polymers to make them suitable for 3D printing.

Read Annalisa’s Emerging Investigator article, Vat 3D printing of full-alginate hydrogels via thiol–ene reactions towards tissue engineering applications, DOI D3PY00902E. 

Check out our interview with Annalisa below:

How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

Polymer Chemistry, with its high quality and reliability, is undoubtedly a prestigious journal for polymer scientists, as all RSC journals are for chemists. Furthermore, Polymer Chemistry is a journal with a broad readership, interested in polymer synthesis but also with an eye on processing and applications, thus it is a perfect journal to showcase our work that aims at optimizing easy modification processes to make natural polymers suitable for 3D printing in view of their biomedical application.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

To be frank, since my academic studies, I have always been fascinated by polymer science and, still now, every new trial and every test that I do in my lab is something that excites me. So it’s hard to give a short answer to this question.

But, talking about my research, since 2015 I focused on the development of new materials for light-induced 3D printing. This processing technique is fascinating and can push the properties of materials to another level for their application in several fields. In the last years, we developed 3D printable polymers from natural sources, alginate is one example, to obtain 3D shaped hydrogels. The possibility to control the architecture of the hydrogels, maintaining the cytocompatibility of the natural polymers can help in making a step further in the biomedical field.

My new challenge is now the use of natural materials directly extracted from agri-food waste. Nature is a wiser chemist than us, and even waste can offer a large variety of molecules and polymers with fantastic properties, we just need to learn how to use to our best what we already have.

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

The development of new material from waste is a topic that is gaining attention because we really need to enter in the mind-set of a greener chemistry. So, the question could be “How to do this in polymer chemistry?”. In my opinion the focus on waste valorization is a good start, but it’s not enough, I think that scientists must start looking at the impact of the whole processes that they develop, from extraction procedures to modification or synthesis and processing, each step must be as “green” as possible.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

What I have learned in the last years is the importance of good collaborations and good discussions with other scientists. Being able to listen to other’s ideas with a critical mind and discuss them, to build new projects, really helps in growing up as a scientist. And you never know, constructive ideas can come from somebody working in completely different environments and in other countries as well as from our office neighbour, you just need to communicate with an open mind.

Furthermore, it is also important to make the effort to talk with people working in different fields: even if sometimes it feels like talking in different languages, this can really open the eyes on different perspectives helping to have much better overview of your work.

Alex studied chemistry at the University of Heidelberg (B. Sc. 2015) and the University of Cambridge (M. Phil. 2016). As a Cambridge Trust Vice Chancellor scholar, he studied the supramolecular realm of main group chemistry under the supervision of Prof. D. S. Wright and received his PhD in 2020. After post-doctoral research supported by a Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 research fellowship at the University of Oxford, he started his independent career at the Free University of Berlin in the fall of 2021 as a Liebig fellow. In 2024 he will move to the University of Bayreuth to take up an appointment as a tenure track Junior Professor. His work is concerned with the development of synthetic methodologies for new functional and degradable polymer backbones. Find out more about his work on Twitter/X @AJPlajer or on www.agplajer.com.

Read Alex’s open access Emerging Investigator article, Ring-opening terpolymerisation of phthalic thioanhydride with carbon dioxide and epoxides, DOI D3PY01022H.

Read our interview with Alex below:

How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

Polymer Chemistry really stands out as a platform for publishing our research. One of its notable strengths lies in its expeditious publication process, ensuring that our findings reach the scientific community in a timely manner, which is vital for a young research group given the various age deadlines we face. We also found that having scientific editors who are experts in the field contributes to the peer-review process as they also make valuable scientific suggestions and never fail to pick reviewers that teach us how to improve the quality of our work.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

As a synthetic inorganic chemist by training who didn’t know what a DSC was until the last months of his Postdoc, I find great excitement in delving into the material properties of the polymers we prepare. It’s particularly intriguing to investigate how these properties evolve when transitioning to polymers incorporating heavier elements like sulfur offering a fresh perspective on the potential applications of our creations.

One of the hurdles I face as a young Principal Investigator is not doing much experimental work anymore. Nonetheless, I remain optimistic about the possibility of returning to the fume hood in the future (or as we say in German: “Die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt”)!

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

To be open to accept help and advice from everyone.

To find out more about his work, follow Alex on on Twitter/X @AJPlajer or check out his lab’s web page.

Dr. Mintu Porel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences and Sustainable Engineering Center, Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad, Kerala, India. After receiving her M.Sc. from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India, she joined University of Miami, Florida, USA for the Ph.D. program. She completed her Ph.D. on Organic Supramolecular Photochemistry in 2012. Thereafter, Dr. Porel moved to Columbia University, New York, USA for her first postdoctoral work and Cornell University, New York, USA for her second postdoctoral work. In September 2017, Dr. Porel joined the Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad as an Assistant Professor. Her research work is focused on the design and synthesis of novel classes of tuneable organic macromolecules and their applications in material and biomedical sciences.

Read Mintu’s open access Emerging Investigator article, Water soluble non-conjugated fluorescent polymers: aggregation induced emission, solid-state fluorescence, and sensor array applications, DOI D3PY00357D.

Read our interview with Mintu below:

How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

Publishing in Polymer Chemistry has been a positive experience for us. The journal has a broad readership, which means that the published work can reach a wide audience of researchers and professionals in the field. Furthermore, Polymer Chemistry covers a wide range of topics within polymer science, so it is suitable for research across different aspects of polymer chemistry, including synthesis, characterization, properties and applications. This versatility makes it a suitable choice for publishing diverse interests within the polymer science and macromolecular chemistry.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

Our group is focussed on the design, synthesis, and applications of novel classes of organic macromolecules. In contrast to the small molecules, macromolecules have some unique properties that make them perfect fit for various applications which are otherwise challenging to meet. The immediate next goal is to get a hand on controlling the properties of the macromolecules which is crucial for making them an efficient candidate for a given application. The novelty of our system is that we can precisely control on how various functional groups are arranged in a macromolecule or polymer to produce its on-demand structure, characteristics, and function. Our team is ambitious to create a platform for the rapid and affordable synthesis of materials with tuneable properties for a wide range of applications, from material to biomedical research which is indeed a challenge.

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

The most important question to be asked, in our opinion, is how polymers can be engineered for cutting-edge uses in applications like energy storage, packaging, biomaterials, and electronics, and how can the molecular weight, structure, and architecture of polymers be regulated.  Also, in order to satisfy various commercial and scientific demands, how can we create polymers with diverse functionalities, and understand its role in tuning properties at the macromolecular level and how that can be modulated to cater diverse applications in material and biomedical fields.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

Regardless of the specific field, researchers should embrace a growth mindset and consider challenges as opportunities. Also, building a solid professional network is important and has big impact on your professional development and opportunities.

Find more about Mintu’s research on her lab’s website. 

Sankarasekaran Shanmugaraju is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad (IITPKD), Kerala, India. He received his Ph.D. degree in 2013 with a gold medal for the best Ph.D. thesis in Inorganic Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. He then moved to Trinity College Dublin, Ireland as an Irish Research Council (IRC) Postdoctoral Fellow. In October 2018, he commenced his independent position as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at IITPKD. The main objective of his group’s current research activities is “the rational design and synthesis of novel structures, smart materials, and functional porous polymers for applications in sustainable energy, environment, and biomedicine”.

Read Sankarasekaran’s open access Emerging Investigator article Tröger’s base-containing fluorenone organic polymer for discriminative fluorescence sensing of sulfamethazine antibiotic at ppb level in the water medium, DOI D3PY00857F.

Check out our interview with Sankarasekaran below. 

How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

Polymer Chemistry is a wonderful platform to showcase research from polymer and macromolecular chemistry. My experience so far has been very pleasant working with Polymer Chemistry. The review process was smooth and the editorial team was very helpful during our paper submission.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

We are interested in the design and synthesis of functional organic and hybrid polymers for applications in fluorescence-based sensing and adsorptive removal of environmental pollutants and contaminants. The most exciting thing about our work is the easy design and facial modulation of the functional properties of polymers. The synthesis of targeted polymer with desired properties and superior materials properties is often challenging. 

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

The most important question to be asked in this field is how the structure, texture, and functional properties of polymeric materials can be tuned toward real-world applications. How can the sensing and adsorption properties can be modulated to develop efficient molecular adsorbents?

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

Identify unique research problems and explore them. The field of polymer chemistry has limitless opportunities to unveil.

Find out more about Sankarasekaran’s research on his faculty webpage.