Polymer Chemistry Blog

A. Levent Demirel received his B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering & Physics from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, in 1989, and Ph.D. degree in Physics from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA in 1996. He was postdoctoral researcher at FOM Institute AMOLF in Amsterdam in 1996-1997. He joined Koç University Chemistry Department as faculty member in 1997 where he was promoted to full professor in 2008. Currently, he is the Associate Dean of College of Sciences. He has received TÜBİTAK (Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Council) Young Scientist Award in 1999, TÜBA (Turkish Academy of Sciences) Young Scientist Award in 2001 and Koç University Werner von Siemens Excellence Award in 2003. In 2006, he has been elected as associate member of Turkish Academy of Sciences. His current research interests are in the field of surface and polymer physical chemistry.

Please follow the link for further information on Levent’s research group and his recent paper published in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

Though my current research is in the field of physical chemistry, I am a physicist by training. I will be happy as long as I stay in science as a major, whether it is physics or chemistry. I was fond of numbers, calculations and equations as a kid. My aunt was a primary school teacher at a village. When I was about 5 years old, I attended her classes for a while where I met numbers and calculations first time. Then at the high school I had very inspiring physics, chemistry and math teachers. I started as an electrical engineering undergraduate, but my desire to understand single transistor dominated over analyzing complex electronic circuits and I went for PhD in Physics at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. I later switched to soft matter physics, by chance, and worked under the supervision of Prof. Steve Granick on viscoelasticity of molecularly thin liquid films. Then at postdoc, I worked on thin films of liquid crystals and block copolymers. There is a lot overlapping in physics and chemistry when you work on soft matter and I naturally moved into the field of physical chemistry after starting as a faculty member at Koç University Chemistry Department.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/C1PY00463H)

The question we are after is quite fundamental and practical: Why are initially clear homogeneous polymer solutions not stable in time and agglomerates formed? Chemists do not like it when chemicals can not be dissolved in a solvent for further analysis or processing, but frequently encounter it in the lab especially with macromolecules. The change in temperature, pH may trigger such irreversible agglomeration among other reasons. Poly(2-isopropyl-2-oxazoline) was known to form irreversible crystalline fibers when kept above cloud point temperature for extended times. We expected the same for poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) (PEOX) as similar interactions are in charge, but could not observe any structure formation for a long time. My PhD student Pınar Tatar Güner was patient enough to wait long (several weeks) to observe that crystalline PEOX fibers are also formed. Then, we controlled this self-assembly process by electrolytes and characterized these fibers structurally.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

As much as I can, I regularly check the contents of every new issue of the major journals in my field. Since its first issue in 2010, I found many high quality papers, very relevant to my research interests in every issue of Polymer Chemistry. It already had high impact on my research and I decided to send it to Polymer Chemistry.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I plan to attend to ACS Spring Meeting in San Diego, USA, in March 2012 where there will be a session on poly(2-oxazoline)s.

How do you spend your spare times?

My wife and I like travelling and spending time in nature.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?

I would choose a profession where I can spend more time out in the field – being a farmer, an archeologist, a field biologist, a geologist.

Masami Kamigaito was born in 1965 in Nagoya, Japan. He received his B.S. (1988), M.S. (1990), and Ph.D. (1993) in polymer chemistry from Kyoto University under the direction of Professor Toshinobu Higashimura. After conducting postdoctoral research with Professor Mitsuo Sawamoto, he joined the faculty of Kyoto University in 1995, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1999. In 2003, he moved to Nagoya University and worked as an Associate Professor with Professor Yoshio Okamoto. In 2004, he was promoted to Professor. From 1997–1998, he worked as a visiting scientist at Stanford University with Professor Robert M. Waymouth. He was the recipient of the 2001 Arthur K. Doolittle Award of the ACS PMSE Division, the 2009 Wiley Polymer Science Award of the Society of Polymer Science, Japan, and the 2010 Japan IBM Science Award (Chemistry). His research interests include controlled radical and cationic polymerizations, the development and application of new polymerizations to precision polymer synthesis, and controlled polymerizations of renewable vinyl monomers.

Please follow the link for further information on Masami’s research group and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

My family. I have always been interested in the natural sciences. My father studied Physics at the University, as did my elder brother. My preference for Chemistry in high school and my desire to choose a different field from that of my father and brother led me to study Chemistry at the University.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/C1PY00401H)

Our group has worked on controlling the molecular weight, stereochemistry, and monomer sequence in radical polymerization by designing polymerization systems, including monomers, initiators, catalysts, and additives. Since I collaborated with Professor Yoshio Okamoto and learned stereospecific radical polymerization, we began researching the simultaneous control of molecular weight and tacticity and its application for the synthesis of novel types of controlled polymers. The RAFT copolymerization of bulky methacrylate and methacrylic acid, which have different reactivities and stereoselectivities, permitted the synthesis of stereogradient polymers, in which the tacticity can be varied from syndiotacticity to isotacticity.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

This paper was submitted to a themed issue of New Methods of Polymer Synthesis, which was guest-edited by Professors Christopher Barner-Kowollik, Jean-François Lutz, and Sebastien Perrier, in which many readers working in this field have a strong interest. In addition, Polymer Chemistry is becoming one of the most attractive journals in polymer chemistry, as evidenced by the quality of the papers published therein.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

Most certainly, I will be attending the 9th Society of Polymer Science Japan International Conference (IPC2012) at Kobe in Japan from 11/12/2012 to 14/12/2012, which will be announced at http://www.spsj.or.jp/english-index.htm, because I am a member of the Program Committee.

How do you spend your spare times?

I play with my three (9, 7, and 3 years old) children.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?

Archeologist. It is another profession I wanted to choose, because I had experiences in finding flint implements when I was a child.