Polymer Chemistry Blog

Prof. Dr. Jean Francois Carpentier received his PhD in 1992 in organic and macromolecular chemistry, University of Lille. He has received several awards, including Pasteur Medal of the graduate school “Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Lille”, Bronze medal of CNRS (1997), Recipient of the ATIPE fellowship from CNRS (2001), Recipient of the Rennes Metropole researcher award (2003), Junior member of Institut Universitaire de France (2005), Chevalier in Ordre des Palmes Académiques (2013), Silver Medal CNRS and Germaine et André Lequeux award from the French Academy of Sciences/Institut de France (2014). His research interests include organometallic chemistry of oxophilic elements (groups 2-6, 12-14); design of single-site (stereoselective) polymerization catalysts: metallocenes, post-metallocenes, Ziegler-Natta polymerization and oligomerization catalysis: polyolefins, polydienes, polyesters, functional polymer materials; homogeneous catalysis for fine chemicals synthesis: hydrogenation, hydroelementation, carbonylation and green chemistry and biorenewables, and biodegradable polymer materials. He has co-authored 236 publications in peer-reviewed journals; 48 original patents and 9 book chapters. He has co-supervised over 20 PhD students.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

 I grew up in a family with a strong appeal for nature and I have been interested in “natural things” from my earliest childhood. When I was 13, at school, I had a wonderful teacher who explained to us the connections between geology, physics and chemistry. I then started to collect minerals and, rapidly, I became more and more interested in the chemistry of these “stones”, trying to understand what they were made of. At 15, I was regularly performing “chemical experiments”, dissolving minerals by acidic treatments and trying to identify which elements were present by wet analytical tests (to the great fear of my parents! but they always encouraged me). Although I was hesitating for a time to become a pharmacist, I finally decided to embark on chemistry studies.

 What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

 Some years ago, my close colleague, Dr. Sophie Guillaume, a specialist in the field of polycarbonates and polyesters, and I started to look at the topical, so-called NIPUs: Non-Isocyanate PolyUrethanes, through the ring-opening of dicyclocarbonate-telechelic polyesters, some materials we are used to preparing in our group. With a former postdoc associate, Dr. Ali Alaaeddine who was working with Dr. Bruno Ameduri in Montpellier, a specialist in fluorinated polymers, we decided to explore fluorinated versions of polyhydroxyurethanes. We anticipated that the combination of these quite different functionalities would make rather unique materials.

 Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work? (DOI: 10.1039/C4PY00547C)

Polymer Chemistry is a high-quality journal with a broad audience. The editorial and production teams are very well-organized and turn-around time for peer-reviewing and production is short.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

Most of my research is devoted to organometallic catalysis, largely for polymerization catalysis. I will thus attend next July the International Conference on Organometallic Chemistry in Sapporo and the 41th International Conference on Coordination Chemistry in Singapore. Next December, I will attend the 10th SPSJ International Polymer Conference in Tsukuba, Japan.

How do you spend your spare time?

I enjoy spending time with my two kids and my wife. In winter time, all my colleagues know that I go hunting regularly. Extensive walking through the countryside refreshes my mind, gives me time for thinking quietly, and helps me keep fit (admittedly with difficulty…). Besides, I still very much enjoy taking care of my mineral collection that I have not stopped since childhood, visiting museums and mines; chemistry is never far away…

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

I would probably have become a forest guard or a fisherman.

Read Professor Carpentier’s latest Polymer Chemistry paper:

From glycidyl carbonate to hydroxyurethane side-groups in alternating fluorinated copolymers
Roukaya Hamiye, Ali Alaaeddine, Mouhamad Awada, Benjamin Campagne, Sylvain Caillol, Sophie M. Guillaume, Bruno Ameduri and Jean-François Carpentier  

Cyrille Boyer is a guest web-writer for Polymer Chemistry. He is currently an associate professor and an ARC-Future Fellow in the School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales (Australia) and deputy director of the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine.

Zhenkun Zhang obtained his B.S. and M.S. degree in Chemistry from Nankai University in China in 1999 and 2002, respectively. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in 2007 from University of Twente in the Netherlands by working in Prof. Jan. K. Dhont’s group in Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany. After that, he spent one year in postdoctoral training at the Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal of the CNRS in France with Dr. Eric Grelet. From Sept. 2008 to Mar. 2011, he conducted postdoctoral research with Prof. Jan Vermant and Prof. Dr. Christian Clasen at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. In June of 2011, he joined the Institute of Polymer Chemistry (IPC) at Nankai University and then was promoted to associate professor in the same year. In his previous research, he mainly focused on applying chemical modifications to rodlike viruses to create well-defined models for the fundamental research of soft matter such as chiral nematic liquid crystals, hydrogels, etc. Together with his collaborators, he also made some progress in the preparation of polymeric ellipsoidal colloids and succeeded in the large-scale directed self-assembly of such particles at a fluid-fluid interface. His current research interests are the preparation and controlled assembly of virus/polymer hybrids, understanding and application of the chiral nematic liquid crystal phase of rodlike viruses, self-assembly of anisotropic particles at fluid-fluid interfaces.

Group web-link: http://polymer.nankai.edu.cn/zhang/

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

It is a destiny. I was indeed good in most of the subjects I had to learn at school, except for sports. When I was at the junior school we started to learn chemistry. I could get a very high score in each examination and then was promoted to the assistant to the chemistry teacher to help him with collecting the homework and examination papers. At that time, I was surprised by the fact that gas bubbles appeared when I poured on vinegar to remove water scale, and I tried to plug two iron sticks to a potato with the hope of producing some electricity to power a tiny bulb. I continued to make high scores in each chemistry test and worked as the assistant to the chemistry teacher through my days in high school. When it was time to pick a major for my university study, I put chemistry as the top choice and went to the college of chemistry at Nankai University in China, which was then claimed to have the best chemistry in China. Since then, I have never stayed away from chemistry.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article? (DOI: 10.1039/C4PY00508B)

Hydrogels are normally made from polymer. In other words, polymers are the key backbone of most of hydrogels. Nowadays, there is increasing interest in the hydogels made from nanoscale fibrous particles which are the results of supramolecular self-assembly of some small molecules. This kind of hydrogel is less controllable and tunable in terms of their mechanical, rheological properties and structure. I have been working with a rodlike virus which has a slender shape with a diameter only 6.6 nm and a length of 880nm. One day, I got the idea that this virus should be the ideal backbone for a fibrous hydrogel. In addition, since I started my own group, I learned from my fellow colleagues about the intriguing properties of boronic acid containing polymers which have found many potential applications such as in glucose sensing materials for the benefit of diabetes treatment. To my surprise, there are barely any reports about binding the boronic acid containing polymers to some biological substrates like proteins to create interesting materials. We decided to design a boronic acid containing polymer with an end functional group which can bind to my favorite natural protein assembly- the rod-like virus. In this way, we created the multiple responsive virus based hydrogel.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

During the work leading to the results presented in the current manuscript, we have read several papers from Polymer Chemistry about boronic acid containing polymers. The quality of the papers is very high and impressive. We also learned that this journal has a fast review and publication process. Our manuscript has been subjected to the assessment of three referees, who gave very objective, insightful and detailed comments. Communication with the Editors is also very pleasant.

At which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I plan to attend the 4th Zing Polymer Chemistry Conference in Cancun, Mexico on 10th December 2014 – 13th December 2014.

How do you spend your spare time?

I like playing with my kid, reading and running when I have free time.

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

Once, for a while, I was obsessed with internet technology, especially website designing and programming. If I were not working in academia, I would have been a programmer.

Read Zhenkun Zhang’s lastest Polymer Chemistry article here:

Cyrille Boyer is a guest web-writer for Polymer Chemistry. He is currently an associate professor and an ARC-Future Fellow in the School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales (Australia) and deputy director of the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine.

Professor Parameswar K. Iyer received his B.Sc. (Chemistry) in 1993 and his M.Sc. (Organic Chemistry) in 1995 at Bhavnagar University. He completed his Ph.D. in 1999 working at the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute, Bhavnagar, India working on asymmetric catalysis. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Technion, Israel (1999-2001), University of California Santa Barbara (2001-2003) and at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland (2003-2004). He then joined the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati as an Assistant Professor in July 2004. In 2008 he was promoted as an Associate Professor and then a full Professor in January 2013. Professor Iyer currently leads a Research Group at the Department of Chemistry and Center for Nanotechnology at IIT Guwahati of ~10 people. His research interests involve the development of novel conjugated polymer and macromolecular structures, their application in optoelectronic devices, chemical and biological sensors and extension to therapeutics.

Group web-link: http://www.iitg.ernet.in/chemistry/fac/pki/

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

As a high school student I had intense curiosity and found science practical, especially chemistry and biology, highly exciting and I used to look forward to it. This interest was further enhanced when I used to visit Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), Bhavnagar, India that used to be in close proximity to my home. Hence, I chose chemistry as my further line of study. I was also fortunate to work at this laboratory for my graduate (PhD) thesis work under the guidance of Dr. Rukhsana I. Kureshy that kindled my interest in chemistry. I realized with time that being a teacher along with being a chemist is much more interesting since this provided immense opportunities to interact with young bright minds.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

Over the years I observed that Polymer Chemistry publishes high quality work on several aspects of polymers and their interdisciplinary applications. We have been working for the past few years on the development of conjugated polymer systems with diverse applications in sensors and diagnosis and had an aim of extending these systems to therapeutics. We have developed a number of polymer and oligomer based systems that had diagnosis potential for neurological disorders. The key advantage of the system reported in the present article is that these materials can be prepared by an easy polymerization method, it is non toxic and it can bind toxic metals such as iron and iron containing metalloproteins at varying pH conditions in biological media at extremely low concentrations. This motivated us to use this system to probe metal traces in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) having amyloid beta (Ab) that add to the toxicity enhancement. The binding of metal in CSF with the help of this new polymer based material disrupted the Ab instantly. With the low levels of detection that were possible with this polymer, the early diagnosis and therapeutic applications of this polymer for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders are huge.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Although Polymer Chemistry was a new journal, it has established itself as a top journal in polymer chemistry. I have known from colleagues that the reviewer comments received from Polymer Chemistry were very helpful and criticisms allowed improvement of the manuscript. I experienced the same as my colleagues, and found that this also encouraged me and my students to carry out the revisions with great enthusiasm, drawing praise from reviewers. I also found that the rapid review and publication time and wide readership were very helpful.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I am planning to attend http://www.kjf-icomep2013.org and http://www.icsm2014.fi/ conferences. I am also organizing the 3^rd International Conference on ‘Advanced Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology” (ICANN-2013) at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG), India, which will take plade between December 1-3, 2013.

http://www.iitg.ernet.in/icann2013/

How do you spend your spare time?

When I am not at work, I am either at the athletics track or at basketball courts which helps me stay fit physically and mentally. Besides sports, I love cooking, gardening and photography.

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

It’s easier to tell what I would not have become than what I would have. As an undergraduate student, I was inclined to join Air force due to my NCC activities. Being a sports coach would also have been a good career option.

A rapid and sensitive detection of ferritin at a nanomolar level and disruption of amyloid β fibrils using fluorescent conjugated polymer
B. Muthuraj, Sameer Hussain and Parameswar Krishnan Iyer  
Polym. Chem., 2013, 4, 5096-5107 DOI: 10.1039/C3PY00680H

Professor Iyer’s peper was recently featured as the Paper of the Week.

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Hanying Zhao received his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from HeFei University of Technology in China in 1988, his MS degree in Chemical Engineering from Tianjin University in 1993, and a PhD in Polymer Chemistry and Physics from Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1997. From 1997 to 2004, he conducted postdoctoral research in Fudan University, Institute of Polymer Research in Dresden, University of Florida and Clarkson University. He joined the Department of Chemistry at Nankai University in 2004, and now he is a professor of chemistry. His current research interests include: (1) synthesis and self-assembly of macromolecules with different topological structures, (2) synthesis of polymer brushes on solid surfaces, (3) synthesis and self-assembly of shape amphiphiles (gold nanoparticles, single-chain nanoparticles, Janus structures).

Webpage: http://chem.nankai.edu.cn/teachers/echo-1.php?id=zhaohanying

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

Actually, until I received my master degree, I was not sure what job I should take, to be a chemist or an engineer? I thought it was not a bad thing to have a PhD degree, so I went to Changchun to pursue my PhD. I studied under Professor Baotong Huang at Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Prof. Huang was an eminent polymer chemist at that time. In my research, I synthesized block copolymers by anionic polymerization, I found polymer chemistry is so beautiful and I never left this field since then. Now all the research conducted in our group is related to polymer chemistry.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article? (DOI: 10.1039/C3PY00516J)

Usually polymeric micelles are composed of hydrophobic cores and hydrophilic coronae. The hydrophobic cores can be used as nanosized vehicles for hydrophobic compounds. In our article, we described a method to prepare hydrophilic interface-crosslinked polymeric micelles. The interfaces of the micelles are crosslinked by atom transfer radical coupling reaction, and the stability of the micelles is improved. The cores and the coronae of the micelles are hydrophilic, and the hydrophilic micelles can be used as nanoreactors for the synthesis of CdS quantum dots, and nanocarriers for the absorption of methylene blue, a positively charged dye. In comparison to the traditional polymer micelles, the hydrophilic micelles may find broader applications in aqueous solutions.   

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work? )

Polymer Chemistry is a leading journal in the fields of polymer science and polymer materials. We believe that publishing our paper in this journal can help the paper to be read by a broad scope of readers. Another reason is the rapid review process.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I will probably attend the Fall 2014 ACS meeting.

How do you spend your spare time?

In my spare time, I usually play badminton with my students. I enjoy reading history books.

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

I love science. I guess, if I were not a scientist, I would be a teacher in a middle-school, or a doctor in a hospital.

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Prof. Peihong Ni graduated from Nanjing University in 1982 with a B.Sc. degree in Polymer Chemistry. She received her M.Sc. degree in Organic Chemistry from Soochow University (Suzhou, China) in 1988, and her Ph.D. degree in Polymer Chemistry and Physics under the supervision of Prof. Shoukuan Fu from Fudan University in 2001. Since 1988, she has been a faculty member in Soochow University as a teaching assistant (1988-1989), lecturer (1989-1996), associate professor (1996-2003) and full professor (since 2003). She worked in Eastern Michigan University (EMU, 1998-1999) as a Ph.D. candidate on a joint program between Fudan and EMU. Her current research interests are in the design and synthesis of biocompatible and stimuli-responsive polymers for biomedical applications, fluorocarbon-hydrocarbon hybrid amphiphilic copolymers, as well as (mini)emulsion polymerization. She has published more than 70 peered-reviewed articles and three book chapters, and held 13 authorized patents of China.

 Research Website: http://chemistry.suda.edu.cn/en/index.aspx?lanmuid=80&sublanmuid=636&id=170

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

It came when I was still in my junior high years, when I began to admire scientists, and was inspired by some practical chemistry experiments, which made me decide on my later choice of chemistry as a career. And it continued during my university period when my particular interest in chemistry grew stronger. Later on, as I worked as a college teacher and continued to pursue my M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees, the interest brought me even greater delight. Now I feel fortunate that I never have changed my choice of chemistry, and polymer chemistry in particular.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

Over the past decade, my team and I started from oxyanion-initiated polymerization, and further extended to “living”/controlled polymerization, ring-opening polymerization in the design and synthesis of stimuli-responsive amphiphilic polymers. We have studied the self-assembly behavior of these polymers. Under the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), we have gradually concentrated our emphasis on the preparation of biocompatible and biodegradable polymers, as well as their potential applications in gene and drug delivery. In particular, we have paid close attention to the biomedical application of polyphosphoesters. This paper is our latest progress in this field, and it reports on the preparation of a novel water-soluble polymeric prodrug, paclitaxel-polyphosphoester conjugated with targeted folic acid molecules. The results show that it offers a convenient but efficient approach for the construction of multifunctional polymeric prodrugs.

I’d like to use this opportunity to extend my sincere thanks for all those who have contributed to this work.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work? (DOI: 10.1039/C3PY00419H )

As regular readers of Polymer Chemistry, our group has noted that many well-known polymer scientists have reported their research progress in this journal. This journal has quickly become one of the key journals in polymer science because of the original content, attractive design, and high-quality pictures. We hope the publication of this article here will bring us more chances of exchange and cooperation from the polymer community worldwide.

At which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I will attend the Chinese Polymer Conference in October 12-16^th, Shanghai (http://www.polymer.cn/polymer2013) and the 13^th Pacific Polymer Conference in November 17-22^nd, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (http://www.ppc2013.tw/index.html).

How do you spend your spare time?

My greatest enthusiasm is still for chemistry and most of my spare time is immersed in it. In addition, music is also my hobby. I love my family, and especially like to talk with my daughter over everything she is interested in. Seeing her growing from a baby to a graduate student, I have learned how parents and their children can be good friends, and how to help young people to follow their academic pursuits unremittingly and keep improving themselves.

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

Maybe I would be a photographer. Quite a few of the pictures I have shot surprised my friends and they even thought I should be a professional rather than an amateur photographer.

Prof. Jiannian Yao received his PhD degree with Prof. Akira Fujishima at Tokyo University in 1993. Then he joined the Institute of Photographic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and now he is a Professor of Chemistry in the Institute of Chemistry, CAS. He has been a member of CAS since 2005, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) since 2008. He is currently serving as the chairman of the Chinese Chemical Society (CCS), and is the vice president of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). His research interests include organic and inorganic opto-functional materials. He has published more than 350 papers, which have been cited nearly 6000 times.

(Research Group: http://jnyao.iccas.ac.cn/)

 What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

Chemistry is a very central discipline, which connects the profound principles in physics and the complex phenomena in materials/biological science. Through various chemical routes, we can build molecules, clusters, nanoparticles, mesoscopic structures, and macroscopic materials over a wide range of scales. This not only provides us an ideal test bed to prove our bold theoretical conjectures, but also gives rise to many practical applications that help in solving the energy demand and environment problem. I am really enjoying my research in chemistry, and I hope it will contribute to both scientific advance and people’s everyday life.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

As potential alternatives to the widely used electron-acceptor of PCBM, highly efficient non-fullerene small molecules with excellent solution-processability are the key bottleneck for the further advances of the solution-processed non-fullerene organic solar cells (OSCs). Our initial motivation is to develop new efficient solution-processed non-fullerene small molecules. Perylene diimide (PDI) derivatives are potential non-fullerene small molecules and have been researched for several tens of years, but their strong aggregation ability normally limits their potential applications in the field of OSCs. To resolve this problem, we have designed and synthesized a series of PDI dimers which combine both the twisted molecular conformations and the amphiphilic side chains. This design concept carries out the balance between the pi-pi stacking ordering of the PDI chromphores and the reduced aggregate size of the acceptor phase when blended with a donor. As part of our findings, this Polymer Chemistry article ( DOI: 10.1039/C3PY00457K) tells the steric pairing effects from the twisted conformations of the molecular backbone and the role of the solvophilic and twisted bridge. Both of them determine the molecular aggregation ability and further the photovoltaic properties of the non-fullerene OSCs, shedding light on the fine-tuning molecular aggregation ability by judicious molecular tailoring.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work? (DOI: 10.1039/C3PY00457K)

Polymer Chemistry is a leading journal in the field of polymer science with many high quality and impact papers in the photovoltaic field. Also, the reviewing and publishing process is very fast, ensuring a timely report of our latest results.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I will attend the 29th Chinese Chemical Society (CCS) Congress held by Peking University in the year of 2014. This congress will invite chemists from China and many other countries (US, UK, Germany, Japan, etc.).

How do you spend your spare time?

I liked playing volleyball very much when I was younger. In these years, I often do some exercises on a treadmill machine, or just take a walk with my family. Chinese calligraphy is also one of my hobbies.

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

I would probably be engaged in the education career. I believe teaching the younger generation is essential to social progress. Actually, helping my students with their research is a very important part of my current job.

Cyrille Boyer is a guest web-writer for Polymer Chemistry. He is currently associate professor and an ARC-Future Fellow at the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine and Center for Advanced Macromolecular Design (School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales (Australia)).

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