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Outstanding Reviewers for Polymer Chemistry in 2018

Outstanding Reviewers for Polymer Chemistry in 2018

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for Polymer Chemistry in 2018, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

We would like to say a big thank you to those individuals listed here as well as to all of the reviewers that have supported the journal. Each Outstanding Reviewer will receive a certificate to give recognition for their significant contribution.

Professor Cyrille Boyer, University of New South Wales ORCiD: 0000-0002-4564-4702

Dr Sophie Guillaume, Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes ORCiD: 0000-0003-2917-8657

Dr Xiaoyu Huang, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry ORCiD: 0000-0002-9781-972X

Professor Dominik Konkolewicz, Miami University ORCiD: 0000-0002-3828-5481

Dr Vincent Ladmiral, ICGM ORCiD: 0000-0002-7590-4800

Dr Zachariah Page, University of Texas at Austin ORCiD: 0000-0002-1013-5422

Professor Felix Schacher, Friedrich Schiller University Jena ORCiD: 0000-0003-4685-6608

Professor Takeshi Shinono, Hiroshima University ORCiD: 0000-0002-1118-9991

Professor Lin Yuan, Soochow University ORCiD: 0000-0001-6966-8584

Professor Youliang Zhao, Soochow University ORCiD: 0000-0002-4362-6244

We would also like to thank the Polymer Chemistry board and the research community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal, just email us with details of your research interests and an up-to-date CV or résumé.  You can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre

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2018 Polymer Chemistry Lectureship is now open for nominations!

Do you know an early-career researcher who deserves recognition for their contribution to the polymer chemistry field?

Now is your chance to put them forward for the accolade they deserve.

Polymer Chemistry is pleased to announce that nominations are now being accepted for its 2018 Lectureship award. This annual award was established in 2015 to honour an early-stage career scientist who has made a significant contribution to the polymer chemistry field.

Previous winners

2017 – Julien Nicolas, Université Paris Sud, France

2016 – Feihe HuangZhejiang University, China

2015 – Richard HoogenboomGhent University, Belgium

Qualification

To be eligible for the Polymer Chemistry Lectureship, the candidate should be in the earlier stages of their scientific career, typically within 15 years of attaining their doctorate or equivalent degree, and will have made a significant contribution to the field.

Description

The recipient of the award will be asked to present a lecture at the Macro18 World Polymer Congress in Cairns, Australia, where they will also be presented with the award. The Polymer Chemistry Editorial Office will provide financial support to the recipient for travel and accommodation costs.

The recipient will also be asked to contribute a lead article to the journal and will have their work showcased free of charge on the front cover of the issue in which their article is published.

Selection

The recipient of the award will be selected and endorsed by the Polymer Chemistry Editorial Board.

Nominations

Those wishing to make a nomination should send details of the nominee, including a brief C.V. and a letter supporting the nomination, to the Polymer Chemistry Editorial Office by 15thJanuary 2018. Self-nomination is not permitted.

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Stimulus-responsive polymers themed issue now online

Issue 1 of volume 8 of Polymer Chemistry is a themed issue on stimulus-responsive polymers, guest edited by Peter J. Roth (University of Surrey, UK) and Andrew B. Lowe (Curtin University, Australia). 

Stimulus-responsive, or “smart”, (co)polymers are fundamental to broad, and ever-growing, fields of research that encompass phase behaviour of unimer solutions, smart nanoparticles, and intelligent bulk materials with shape memory or self-healing abilities. In recent years, (co)polymers have been developed that respond to a fascinating range of chemical, physical, and mechanical stimulation and have been crafted into materials serving a multitude of applications. This special issue of Polymer Chemistry dedicated to stimulus-responsive polymers features articles on the cutting-edge development of novel “smart” materials, as well as up-to-date and in-depth reviews covering a range of specialist areas.

Check out the Editorial by the Guest Editors here.

 

A few articles from the themed issue are highlighted below

Is biopolymer hair a multi-responsive smart material?
Xueliang Xiao, Jinlian Hu, Xiaoting Gui, Jing Lu and Hongsheng Luo 

Field responsive materials: photo-, electro-, magnetic- and ultrasound-sensitive polymers
Theodore Manouras and Maria Vamvakaki

Self-healing of glucose-modified polyurethane networks facilitated by damage-induced primary amines
Ying Yang and Marek W. Urban

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2017 Polymer Chemistry Lectureship is now open!

Do you know an early-career researcher who deserves recognition for their contribution to the polymer chemistry field?

Now is your chance to put them forward for the accolade they deserve.

Polymer Chemistry is pleased to announce that nominations are now being accepted for its 2017 Lectureship award. This annual award was established in 2015 to honour an early-stage career scientist who has made a significant contribution to the polymer chemistry field.

Previous winners

2016 – Feihe Huang, Zhejiang University, China

2015 – Richard Hoogenboom, Ghent University, Belgium

Qualification

To be eligible for the Polymer Chemistry Lectureship, the candidate should be in the earlier stages of their scientific career, typically within 15 years of attaining their doctorate or equivalent degree, and will have made a significant contribution to the field.

Description

The recipient of the award will be asked to present a lecture three times, one of which will be located in the home country of the recipient. The Polymer Chemistry Editorial Office will provide the sum of £1000 to the recipient for travel and accommodation costs.

The recipient will be presented with the award at one of the three award lectures. They will also be asked to contribute a lead article to the journal and will have their work showcased on the back cover of the issue in which their article is published.

Selection

The recipient of the award will be selected and endorsed by the Polymer Chemistry Editorial Board.

Nominations

Those wishing to make a nomination should send details of the nominee, including a brief C.V. (no longer than 2 pages A4) together with a letter (no longer than 2 pages A4) supporting the nomination, to the Polymer Chemistry Editorial Office by 27thJanuary 2017. Self-nomination is not permitted.

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Camel hair shows shape memory

Camel hair as smart material

The unusual shape memory properties in animal hair could be a basis for the development of new smart materials.

Read the full story by Emma Cooper in Chemistry World

This article is free to access until 10 October 2016

X Xiao et al.Polym. Chem., 2016, DOI: 10.1039/C6PY01283C

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Advisory Board Top Picks: Tom Davis and Nghia Truong

Tom Davis is a member of Advisory Board for Polymer Chemistry and the Monash–Warwick Professor of medical nanotechnology at Monash University, Australia. Prof. Davis’ research focuses on the application of polymer science and nanotechnology to therapeutic applications, and enhancing the fundamental understanding of how nanomaterials interact with biological systems.

Nghia Truong is a member of the RSC Advances Reviewer Panel and a research fellow at Monash University, Australia. His research focuses on engineering the size, shape, surface, core, and function of polymeric nanoparticles for applications in nanomedicine, using a variety of techniques including emulsion polymerization, self-assembly, polymerization-induced self-assembly, temperature-induced morphological transformation, and click chemistry.

You can find all Advisory Board’s Top Picks papers in our web collection.

Focus on nanoparticle shapes (Prof. Tom Davis, Monash University, Australia and Dr. Nghia Truong, Monash University, Australia).

Shape plays an important role in functional properties of nanoparticles, and as a result, their utility in many applications. Polymer chemists with powerful synthetic techniques have recently made significant contributions expanding our ability to make complex nano-shapes. In 2016, many excellent Polymer Chemistry publications have appeared describing the synthesis and assembly of polymers into tertiary structures.   Below we highlight some that have caught our eye.

1. Multicompartment morphologies self-assembled from fluorinated ABC triblock terpolymers: the effects of flexible and rigid hydrophobic moieties

Sen Li, Jinlin He, Mingzu Zhang, Hairong Wang and Peihong Ni

Polym. Chem., 2016, 7, 1773–1781

Li et. al. self-assemble fluorinated triblock terpolymers into five types of reproducible shapes including sphere, tube, rod, hamburger, and flower. Interestingly, rod-like aggregates have a uniform zig-zag pattern. This work reveals the fact that flexibility or rigidity of hydrophobic segment and polymer concentration have a big influence on the shape of nanoparticles.

2. Disk-like micelles with cylindrical pores from amphiphilic polypeptide block copolymers

Xue Lin, Xiaohua He, Chaoqun Hu, Yuxiang Chen, Yiyong Mai and Shaoliang Lin

Polym. Chem., 2016, 7, 2815–2820

A rare and complex shape such as a nanodisk with cylindrical pores has recently been achieved by self-assembly of the amphiphilic block copolypeptide poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(γ-benzyl-L-glutamate) (PEG-b-PBLG) in solution. Spherical micelles and vesicles can also be prepared by tuning the ratio between the hydrophilic block and hydrophobic block in PEG-b-PBLG copolymers.

3. Salicylaldehyde-functionalized block copolymer nano-objects: one-pot synthesis via polymerization-induced self-assembly and their simultaneous cross-linking and fluorescence modification

Jianbing Huang, Hanjun Zhu, Hui Liang and Jiang Lu

Polym. Chem., 2016, 7, 4761–4770

Beside traditional self-assembly, RAFT-mediated emulsion and dispersion polymerization is a very useful technique to simultaneously synthesise block copolymers and form nanoparticles with different shapes. Using this technique, Huang et. al. can crosslink and functionalise spheres, worms, and vesicles with salicylaldazine moieties. These moieties endow the nano-objects with strong orange fluorescence in water, organic solutions or solid state via an aggregation-induced emission mechanism.

4. Microwave-assisted synthesis of block copolymer nanoparticles via RAFT with polymerization-induced self-assembly in methanol

Elden T. Garrett, Yiwen Pei and Andrew B. Lowe

Polym. Chem., 2016, 7, 297–301

Andrew Lowe and coworkers have reported the use of microwaves to further assist RAFT-mediated dispersion polymerization and the formation of nanoparticles with various shapes. The work shows the benefits of microwave-assisted syntheses of nanoparticles in alcoholic solvents.

5. Addition of water to an alcoholic RAFT PISA formulation leads to faster kinetics but limits the evolution of copolymer morphology

E. R. Jones, M. Semsarilar, P. Wyman, M. Boerakker and S. P. Armes

Polym. Chem., 2016, 7, 851–859

Besides using a microwave, the addition of water into alcoholic solvents also increases the rate of RAFT-mediated dispersion polymerization. On the other hand, Armes and coworkers find that in the presence of water, only kinetically-trapped spheres are obtained. This work and other works using aqueous RAFT-mediated emulsion polymerizations create a currently unclear question about the mechanism of the in-situ formation of various nanoparticle shapes in water.

Review article

Theoretical simulations of nanostructures self-assembled from copolymer systems

Zhanwen Xu, Jiaping Lin, Qian Zhang, Liquan Wang and Xiaohui Tian

Polym. Chem., 2016, 7, 3783–3811

Beside powerful synthetic techniques, theoretical simulations offer a useful approach for the understanding and prediction of the formation of polymeric nanostructures. The review by Xu et al. gives a nice overview of the simulation investigations of many self-assembled nanostructures. By tailoring the molecular architectures of block copolymers, nanoparticles with desired shapes can be achieved. Challenges and further developments for theoretical simulations are also discussed in this useful review.

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Polymer Chemistry’s Impact Factor increases to 5.687

Polymer Chemistry is pleased to announce that its latest Impact Factor is 5.687.

Polymer Chemistry is the home for the most innovative and exciting polymer research, with an emphasis on the synthesis of polymers and their applications. Led by Editor-in-Chief David Haddleton, and our expert team of international Associate Editors and Editorial Board members, Polymer Chemistry has the highest immediacy index (1.408) of any primary research journal in the Polymer Science category.

Immediate impact: Our Immediacy Index has been consistently higher than those of our competitors since our launch.

High citation rate: We have a higher fraction of articles cited than our competitors, with 98% of papers receiving at least 1 citation.*

Rapid publication: We have an average time from receipt to publication of just 50 days, and less than 19 days from receipt to first decision.

Continued growth: For the 6th year in a row both our number of publications and our impact factor have increased.

We are extremely grateful to all our readers, authors and referees for their contribution to Polymer Chemistry’s continued success, and to our Editorial and Advisory Board members for their hard work and dedication.

Join the many leading scientists who have already chosen to publish in Polymer Chemistry and submit today!

Find out how other Royal Society of Chemistry journals were ranked in the latest Impact Factor release.

*As of 29 June 2016, based on citations to articles published in 2013 and 2014.

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