Archive for the ‘Author of the Month’ Category

Author of the Month: Dr Daniel Klinger

Daniel obtained his degree in chemistry from the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. During his diploma studies under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Patrick Theato, he worked on the development of photo-switchable block copolymers using controlled radical polymerization methods. He then moved to the group of Katharina Landfester at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz where he received his PhD at the end of 2011. During this time he focused on the development of responsive microgels and polymeric nanoparticles for enzymatic and light-triggered release applications. In, early 2012, Daniel joined the group of Craig J. Hawker at the University of California in Santa Barbara as a postdoctoral researcher and started working on surfactant-directed block copolymer self-assembly in nanoparticles.

In his current position as project leader in the Materials Research Laboratory at UCSB, he combines the areas of block copolymer self-assembly, with his existing experience in the fields of stimuli-responsive materials and colloidal chemistry. He currently focuses on the development of functional nanomaterials from the controlled assembly of tailor-made polymeric building blocks. Among other areas, he is interested in phase-separated block copolymer nanoparticles, stimuli-responsive micro- and nano gels and new polymers and composite materials for applications in photonics, optoelectronics and thermal conductors.

What was your inspiration of becoming a chemist?

From early on, I was always interested in understanding how things around me work and constantly asked the questions, “Why is it like this?” and “How come it does that?” It was my father – a chemistry teacher – who first showed me that all these interesting phenomena could be explained by the interaction of atoms and molecules. I became hooked on the subject in high school when I learned that these physical and chemical principles could be used to develop entirely new materials of my own design. It is this process of developing new materials by combining a theoretical understanding with the handicraft of an actual experiment that still excites me and drives my research.  The ability to transform an abstract idea on paper into a reality in the lab is highly rewarding to me.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

To me, stimuli-responsive microgels have long been an interesting class of materials. Adjusting the swelling and degradation profiles via macromolecular design allows for precise tuning of their loading and release behavior. However, the utilization and efficiency of such nanoparticles in actual biomedical applications crucially depends on various structural parameters such as surface chemistry, size and size distribution. Since investigations on new responsive particles normally come with variations in these factors, accurately comparing the biological efficiency of different approaches is difficult. To overcome this limitation, I wanted to develop a synthetic platform that could investigate different response mechanisms while keeping the structural and morphological parameters constant, and the approach presented here is a first step towards realizing this goal.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Polymer Chemistry is a great platform for the rapid publication of studies that are not only focusing on macromolecular synthesis but also combine new polymeric materials with a variety of different research fields and applications. Since our presented research is based on combining polymer chemistry with the area of functional colloids, the interdisciplinary character of the journal makes our work accessible to a broad readership and thereby enhances its exposure.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

Most likely, I will attend the fall ACS meeting in Boston 2015.

How do you spend your spare times?

I really like travelling and exploring new countries, cultures and foods around the world. I am especially happy if I am able to combine this with spending time in nature. I love being active outdoors and enjoy hiking, rock climbing and camping in the wilderness where simple things like sitting around the campfire can be the best reward after a long day.

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

Being a chemist, I enjoy mixing things together to make new and interesting products. If I were not a scientist, I would combine this excitement with my passion for food to become a chef. I am just not sure whether a lot of people would enjoy these “experiments”.


A robust platform for functional microgels via thiol–ene chemistry with reactive polyether-based nanoparticles

Carolin Fleischmann,   Jeffrey Gopez,   Pontus Lundberg,   Helmut Ritter,   Kato L. Killops,   Craig J. Hawker and   Daniel Klinger

We herein report the development of crosslinked polyether particles as a reactive platform for the preparation of functional microgels. Thiol–ene crosslinking of poly(allyl glycidyl ether) in miniemulsion droplets – stabilized by a surface active, bio-compatible polyethylene glycol block copolymer – resulted in colloidal gels with a PEG corona and an inner polymeric network containing reactive allyl units. The stability of the allyl groups allows the microgels to be purified and stored before a second, subsequent thiol–ene functionalization step allows a wide variety of pH- and chemically-responsive groups to be introduced into the nanoparticles. The facile nature of this synthetic platform enables the preparation of microgel libraries that are responsive to different triggers but are characterized by the same size distribution, surface functionality, and crosslinking density. In addition, the utilization of a crosslinker containing cleavable ester groups renders the resulting hydrogel particles degradable at elevated pH or in the presence of esterase under physiological conditions.


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.


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Author of the Month: Dr. Patrick Lacroix-Desmazes

Dr. Patrick Lacroix-Desmazes graduated in 1992 from the National School of Chemistry of Montpellier, France, and received a Master degree in Polymer Science from the University of Montpellier. He obtained his PhD degree in 1996 from the University Claude-Bernard Lyon I, under the supervision of Professor Alain Guyot in collaboration with Elf Atochem and in the frame of a European program on reactive surfactants, on the use of macromonomers as stabilizers in dispersion polymerization in polar media. After a postdoctoral research in 1997 on suspension polymerization with inorganic stabilizers at BP Chemicals in Wingles, he joined CNRS as a junior scientist working with Professor Bernard Boutevin. In 1999, he developed RITP, a promising method for controlled/living radical polymerization. He received his Habilitation Degree in 2004. He was awarded the 2004 Innovative Research ADER Award (Association for the development of Education and Research) in collaboration with Solvay. In 2009, he was distinguished as a researcher laureate from Languedoc-Roussillon and the same year he was promoted CNRS research director. Currently, he is the head of the team Engineering Macromolecular Architectures (IAM) at the Institute Charles Gerhardt in Montpellier. He is deputy president of the French Polymer Group association (GFP) and active member of the French Chemical Society (SCF). His research interests cover the mechanisms and kinetics of controlled radical polymerizations (photoiniferters, NMP, ATRP, RAFT, ITP, RITP), including in dispersed media (emulsion, dispersion, suspension polymerization), the self-assembly of polymers, the bottom-up elaboration of hybrid materials as well as the synthesis and use of polymers in liquid or supercritical carbon dioxide for the development of clean processes in unconventional media.

Link to my research group’s website: http://iam.icgm.fr/

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

When I was very young, my first wish was to become a novelist. Then, during my studies I became more and more interested by sciences and my dream was to become aerospace engineer or something related to the exploration of universe! But I was not brilliant enough in math to reach this goal. And, as I also appreciated chemistry and all the mystery about it from alchemy to modern chemistry, I found that becoming chemist could be a good way to satisfy my thirst for creation. Researcher in chemistry is a great job: I like it not only on a scientific point of view but also because it is an excellent way to make new friends all over the world and share our cultures.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

We have been working on double hydrophilic block copolymers (DHBC) since a few years and with some colleagues of our institute we have shown that such copolymers could be nicely used as structure-directing agents in the elaboration of hybrid mesoporous silica materials (paper here). In the present article, we wanted to detail the synthesis of such copolymers and to show how a platform of DHBC with different characteristics (cationic, anionic, pH- or T-stimuli responsive) could be efficiently produced. Many papers appear in the literature on this topic but quite few are giving and discussing the very details that make the synthesis more or less challenging, so we tried to emphasize on such details.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Polymer Chemistry is a journal with a good audience and fast dissemination and the reviewing process is usually constructive. For this article, we really took our time to fully answer the comments of the referees. This journal is a leading one in chemistry and the editorial and production team is well organized.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

My next conference will probably be the 3rd International Symposium on Green Chemistry to be held in La Rochelle on May 3-7 2015. I will present our latest results on polymer-assisted clean processes in supercritical carbon dioxide.

How do you spend your spare times?

I like hiking in general and in the mountains when I have enough time, contemplating nature, far from the rushing modern life. I also enjoy swimming, running and biking with my 14 and 16 years old girls. I love travelling and discovering new countries and share other cultures with my family.

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

I think I would create a new type of job: itinerant teacher. Instead of the students coming to the teacher, the teacher would visit the students worldwide to share the knowledge and cultures.


Asymmetric neutral, cationic and anionic PEO-based double-hydrophilic block copolymers (DHBCs): synthesis and reversible micellization triggered by temperature or pH

Maël Bathfield,   Jérôme Warnant,   Corine Gérardin and  Patrick Lacroix-Desmazes

The syntheses of three poly(ethylene oxide)-based (PEO) double-hydrophilic block copolymers (DHBCs) of different second block nature (thermosensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) block, anionic poly(vinylbenzyl phosphonic di-acid) block, and cationic poly(vinylbenzyl triethyl ammonium chloride) block) are described. The synthesis strategy depends on the synthesis of a single 5kD-PEO-based macro-chain transfer agent that is able to control the RAFT polymerizations of various functional monomers. Low molecular weights of the second block were targeted to obtain asymmetric structures for the DHBCs. Their ability to form micelles under appropriate conditions (specified temperature, pH and nature of the auxiliary of micellization) and the reversibility of the micellization process were checked. Finally, a nanostructured hybrid silica material was obtained using the PNIPAM-based copolymer as a structure-directing agent (SDA), which yielded well-organized mesoporous silica after template removal.


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.


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Author of the Month: Dr. Damien Quemener

Dr. Damien Quemener gained his Pd.D in 2005 in the “Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques” at Bordeaux University (France), and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of New South Wales (Center for Advanced Macromolecular Design) in Sydney, Australia until 2006. He joined Montpellier University in 2007 as an Associate Professor, working at the “Institut Europeen des Membranes” in Montpellier, France. He works at the interface between chemistry and physical chemistry of polymers and membranes with the goal of preparing new autonomous and dynamic porous materials.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

When I was at junior high school, I gained work experience in a medical laboratory, where I undertook simple and automatic analyses. I was fascinated by the fact that a simple colour change could give you very important results in the quest of a medical diagnostic. But right after I was also frustrated that I didn’t understand the theory beyond that so I decided to study chemistry not to change the world but to simply have a better understanding of it.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

Filtration membranes are now everywhere and are recognised as a key technology, for example in water purification. Classical membranes are designed to be highly stable towards mechanical and chemical stresses. We decided to take the opposite strategy in saying that a membrane should be unstable but controlled, in order to make it possible to adapt to any environmental changes. Therefore we have prepared a membrane from block copolymer micelles responsive to water pressure, pH or UV radiation.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Well, Polymer Chemistry is quite a new and very dynamic journal having a strong impact in the polymer community, and also because it’s a very quick way to publish hot results since the time to publication is short.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

This year, I might attend Euromembrane 2015 on the 6-10. September 2015 in Germany but my plans are not yet finalised.

How do you spend your spare time?

Apart from my work, I love to spend my free time with my family since my two boys keep me connected to the day to day reality. I’m also a runner and I’m trying to run two marathons every year, my most recent one was Paris in April.

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

I would definitely be an architect and build modern style houses since I love to see how something drawn on a piece of paper can be transferred to life-size scale. That’s a common occurrence in the role of a researcher to.


Stimuli responsive nanostructured porous network from triblock copolymer self-assemblies

Zineb Mouline, Mona Semsarilar, Andre Deratani and Damien Quemener

An ABA triblock amphiphilic copolymer is synthesized using RAFT chemistry. The self-assembled micelles of this copolymer are then used to prepare nano-organized porous films that could be used as filtration membranes. In this work a novel strategy is developed to build the nanostructures and perform their self-assembly using reversible and non-covalent interactions to create free volume between the micelles, thus giving tuneable porosity to the film. The self-assembly of poly(styrene)-b-poly(phenylboronic acid)-b-poly(styrene) block copolymer, occurs at high concentration through solvent evaporation, which induces a progressive decrease of the inter-micellar distance, and results in the formation of an in situ network of micelles and the final porous film. Subsequent permeability tests were conducted under different stimuli (pH and UV), generating cross-linking and chemical exchange reactions, to ensure the best balance between permeability and mechanical strength. This work highlights an original strategy for pore size control, and provides new insights towards the design of stimuli-responsive materials.


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.


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Author of the Month: Dr. Andreas Walther

Dr. Andreas Walther graduated from Bayreuth University in Germany in 2008 with a PhD focusing on the self-assembly behaviour and applications of Janus particles and other soft, complex colloids. After a postdoctoral stay with a focus on biomimetic hybrid materials at Aalto University (Helsinki, Finland), he returned to Germany and established his independent research group at the DWI – Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials in Aachen. His research interests concentrate on developing and understanding hierarchical self-assembly concepts inside and outside equilibrium, and on utilising and connecting such processes to soft materials research – often following bioinspired design principles. Andreas has published more than 90 papers and has recently been awarded the Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award (for Materials) and the Reimund Stadler Young Investigator Award of the German Chemical Society.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

I believe one of the big chemical companies is responsible for attracting me to chemistry by sending a “polymer science kit”, containing foams, resins and a toolkit to prepare Nylon fibres, to my senior class when I was still back in secondary school. Even nowadays, I still think that the classical experiment of pulling a polyamide fibre from the interface of oil/water monomer mixtures is one of the most intriguing and instructive experiments in a polymer class.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

Our main interest lies in developing self-assembly concepts to create new soft materials, for which we heavily rely on very well defined building blocks with tailored functionalities and interactions. Modern polymer chemistry provides us with the tools to make desirable building blocks with relative ease of synthesis. In this case we were interested in a straightforward way to modify the surfaces of colloidal particles to provide us with very specific biorecognition units, while at the same time rejecting all non-specific protein adhesion. Interestingly enough, despite all the common knowledge about the protein-repellent properties of polyethylene glycol (PEG) coatings, we could only find a very small amount of systematic studies discussing how for instance the architecture and composition of adsorbed PEG-based block copolymers influence protein repellency. So we went through a systematic study and optimised the building blocks to provide us with the required features for our future work. The underlying structure/property relationships at this point will be interesting for other researchers working on surface modification, biorecognition and protein-fouling.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Polymer Chemistry strives for high-level and interdisciplinary scientific contributions covering all modern aspects of polymer chemistry. We felt it to be the right place to achieve highest reach and recognition in the field.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

European Polymer Federation Meeting, 21-26 June 2015, at Dresden, Germany.

How do you spend your spare time?

Keeping the work/life balance is probably one of the hardest challenges when working in science. I very much enjoy cooking to take my mind off stressful events, and I enjoy travelling to see new places and meet interesting people.

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

Indeed a very good question, I would probably follow another creative passion. Best-case scenario would then be running a restaurant in a picturesque place.


Combining the incompatible: Block copolymers consecutively displaying activated esters and amines and their use as protein-repellent surface modifiers with multivalent biorecognition

Daniel Hoenders,   Thomas Tigges and   Andreas Walther


We present the facile synthesis and orthogonal functionalization of diblock copolymers containing two mutually incompatible segments, i.e. primary amines and activated esters, that are displayed chronologically and synthesized by consecutive radical addition fragmentation transfer polymerization (RAFT) of suitably modified monomers. Post-polymerization modification of the active ester moieties with functionalized triethylene glycol derivatives (TEG-NH2/BiotinTEG-NH2) furnishes a protein-repellent block with specific biorecognition, and the activation of the amine groups via deprotection results in newly reactive primary amines. We subsequently use these amines as an anchoring layer for the coating of aldehyde-functionalized polystyrene (PS) colloids and demonstrate tight adhesion and enhanced protein-repellent characteristics combined with specific and multivalent biorecognition of avidin as a function of block ratios. Our strategy demonstrates a viable approach for orthogonal combination of widely needed, but mutually incompatible, functional groups into complex polymer architectures.



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), deputy director of the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine and member of Centre for Advanced Macromolecular Design.


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Author of the Month: Prof. Makoto Obata

Professor Makoto Obata received his Ph.D. degree in polymer chemistry from Hokkaido University, Japan in 1999. In 2000, he joined Professor Percec’s group at the University of Pennsylvania as a postdoctoral fellow. After one and a half years, he joined the faculty of Nara Women’s University from 2001 to 2009. In 2009, he moved to the University of Yamanashi, where he is now an Associate Professor of Applied Chemistry. His research area is the synthetic chemistry of functional polymers containing carbohydrates and dyes.

Take a look at Professor Makoto Obata research group’s website (please select translate for English).

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

The training of my scientific expertise started at Asahikawa National College of Technology, Hokkaido, Japan, when I was 15 years old. I had an impressive supervisor at the college, and I was enthusiastic about studying my first research project on the synthesis of polymers bearing crown-ether for lithium ion capturing. After this experience, I was enchanted with the design and synthesis of new materials, especially organic materials.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

I started my career in Professor Yano’s laboratory at Nara Women’s University, Japan. His research area is the coordination chemistry of carbohydrate and its medicinal applications, such as anti-cancer drugs. When I worked with him, I recognised the potential of carbohydrates in medical applications. Currently, polyethylene glycol (PEG) is the first choice for water-soluble and biologically compatible polymers for drug delivery applications. In the future, I would like to make glycopolymer a functional alternative to PEG following a recently developed, controlled polymerisation technique.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

My colleagues and I recognise that Polymer Chemistry is a high quality journal in this area.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I hope to attend the 2015 International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies (PACIFICHEM 2015).

How do you spend your spare time?

My wife and I love arts, especially 17th century Dutch painting, and animals (we love cats and dogs, and she deeply loves penguins!). However, it is not easy to see such masterpieces in Japan…

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

Even if I had not become a chemist, I would maybe have worked as a scientific engineer. I have never imagined joining any other kind of profession.


Aqueous RAFT synthesis of block and statistical copolymers of 2-(α-D-mannopyranosyloxy)ethyl methacrylate with 2-(N,N-dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate and their application for nonviral gene delivery
Makoto Obata, Tomoya Kobori, Shiho Hirohara and Masao Tanihara
Polym. Chem., 2015,6, 1793-1804
DOI: 10.1039/C4PY01652A

Block copolymers composed of 2-(α-D-mannopyranosyloxy)ethyl methacrylate (ManEMA) and 2-(N,N-dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) were synthesized by aqueous RAFT polymerization. The number-average degree of polymerization (DPn) of ManEMA segments was constant at 33, and the DPn of DMAEMA segments varied from 98 to 241. Statistical copolymers with a similar composition were also prepared via aqueous RAFT polymerization. The mannose-presenting nature was evaluated by a turbidimetric assay using Concanavalin A. The clustering rate of statistical copolymers was faster than those of the corresponding block copolymers. By contrast, no significant differences between block and statistical copolymers were found in their DNA-condensing ability as evaluated using gel shift assays and in their cytotoxicity in the transfection of plasmid DNA (pEGFP-N1) to HeLa cells. However, the overall transfection efficiency significantly depended on the monomer distribution. Statistical copolymers showed an overall transfection efficiency comparable to those of poly(DMAEMA·HCl)s, but block copolymers showed no detectable transfection under the same conditions.


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).


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Author of the Month: Prof. Philipp Vana

Philipp Vana studied Chemistry at the University of Vienna, Austria, were he obtained a Master of Natural Sciences in 1996 and a Doctor of Natural Sciences in 1999 after investigating chain-length dependent termination kinetics in radical polymerisation in Professor Oskar-Friedrich Olaj’s group. Parallel to his PhD, he studied economics and law and obtained a diploma from the Technical University Vienna and a Master of Business Administration from the Danube-University Krems, Austria. Between 2001 and 2003 he was a Schrödinger-Fellow of the Austrian Science Fund at the Centre for Advanced Macromolecular Design (CAMD) at the University of New South Wales, Australia, were he work in the group of Professor Tom Davis in the field of RAFT polymerisation kinetics. In 2003, he established an independent research group at the University of Göttingen, Germany, specifically focusing on macromolecular design and functional polymer materials. In 2005 he became a Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at Kyoto University in Professor Takeshi Fukuda’s group, were he moved into the field of polymer brushes and surface modifications. In 2008 he was granted the prestigious Heisenberg-Professorship of the German Research Foundation (DFG) at the University of Göttingen, where he finally became a Full Professor for Macromolecular Chemistry in 2010 after declining offers from Leipzig University and Duisburg-Essen University. Since 2013 he has been the director of the Institute of Physical Chemistry in Göttingen. Philipp has published more than 100 original research papers in addition to several book chapters, reviews and patents.

His scientific interests are macromolecular chemistry with a focus on tailored polymer microstructures and topologies as well as kinetic and mechanistic studies of polymerisation processes. He works on biomimetic high-performance polymers, polymer brushes and films on solid surfaces, functionalised polymers, printing inks, tire materials, liquid crystal displays and UV-switchable block copolymers. He also works on kinetics and mechanisms of radical polymerisations, which are studied via pulsed laser methods coupled with highly time-resolved EPR spectroscopy as well as via computer simulations. A special focus in polymer analytics is on soft ionisation mass spectrometry, AFM, mechanical testing of polymers, ellipsometry, and IR-spectroscopy.

Find out more about Philip Vana’s research by visiting his group Web-site.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

I am from a family of natural scientists – my father was a physicist, my mother a chemist and so I got in touch with all the interesting aspects of natural science very early on. However, I noticed during my childhood that my interests lay more in the field of biology and living matter and so I decided to study biochemistry; I was worried about the career perspectives of a pure biologist. During my studies I got in touch with chemistry and quickly noticed that it was extremely exciting and interesting, this changed my original plan and I switched to chemistry. I haven’t regretted the decision ever since and I am very happy to be a synthetic chemist. I then chose the field of polymer chemistry, I think it is the most exciting area of chemistry due to its large diversity. In the end, I came back to my original interests in biology by working on bio-inspired materials.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

I was always intrigued by the complexity and beauty of natural systems. I find it exciting to learn from nature by copying important aspects of natural materials and transpose them to purely synthetic fabrics. When I was writing a grant application several years ago, I accidently saw a picture of titin on the transparency of a conference talk. For me, as a polymer chemist, the structure looked like a very regular polymer made of individual ring-like monomers. At the time I was a PI in a graduate school in which hydrogen bonds were investigated in great detail. I started to interconnect all these aspects and came up with a project plan that aimed to fabricate a synthetic titin. To our delight, the project was granted but it then took some time to arrive at the final material because we first had to explore and optimise all the individual components of the system, including ring polymers. However, we are very happy that we could indeed mimic the structure of titin.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Honestly, this was the first time that I published in Polymer Chemistry. Many of our earlier work was very much related to physical chemistry, engineering, analytics and physics of polymers and I did not consider our work as being pure polymer chemistry. Nevertheless, I was very much impressed by the rise of this journal, in which many of my friends and colleagues are deeply involved. I also find the topics that are covered extremely interesting, especially the strong focus on controlled radical polymerisation, I am a loyal reader of this beautiful journal. Within this context, I find it amusing that my first paper in Polymer Chemistry is not related to controlled radical polymerisation at all, but we present a new way of forming modular polycyclic structures via step-growth, which we had never used before. In any case, I found this topic to be exactly in scope of Polymer Chemistry, which made it easy for me to chose it for this publication.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

As I will shortly become dean of our faculty for the next two years, I cannot make exact plans for the near future but you can always meet my students and colleagues from my group at different conferences world-wide presenting our work. A group of my students, for instance will present our results in the field of nano-composite materials at the Fourth International Conference on Multifunctional, Hybrid and Nanomaterials in Sitges, Spain, 9 – 13 March 2015.

How do you spend your spare time?

I have a family with four small children and my wife and I are both work full days. This means that most of my time outside of the university is spent taking care of my children and organising daily life, which I very much enjoy. There is consequently not much time left for personal hobbies in the moment, but the time with my family gives me strength for my scientific endeavours as it clears my mind and wipes away old thoughts making room for new ideas.

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

Actually, I am very pleased with my job and enjoy most of my time being a Professor of Macromolecular Chemistry. The second best choice for me would have been an architect. I always loved making construction designs and graphics and I would love to design buildings from scratch. In a way, this would be similar to what I am doing now, but aiming at much larger structures. As an architect of molecules, however I am also very happy, although I haven’t found any inhabitants for our little macromolecular constructions yet!


Titin-mimicking polycyclic polymers with shape regeneration and healing properties

Jan-Hendrik Schuetz,   Peng Wentao and   Philipp Vana

Polycyclic polymers based on cyclic (ABC)n-multiblock-copolymers are formed via stepwise polymerisation of three individual blocks and exploiting the ring merging reaction of these ring polymers. The so-obtained precursor ring-polymers were interconnected via click reaction. Small blocks within the rings with the ability to form self-complementary hydrogen bonds lead to intra- and intermolecular links between polycyclic polymers. The obtained materials, which mimic nature’s paragon Titin, have some extraordinary material properties concerning elasticity and energy dissipation.


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.


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Author of the Month: Dr. Antoine Debuigne

Dr. Antoine Debuigne is currently a Research Associate of the National Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S. – FNRS) at the University of Liege, Belgium. He graduated in 1999 from the University of Namur, Belgium, following a master’s thesis in organic chemistry. In 2004, he obtained his Ph.D. degree from the Center for Education and Research on Macromolecules (CERM), University of Liege, Belgium, directed by Prof. R. Jérôme. He then moved to the University of Toronto, Canada, and conducted post-doctoral research in Prof. M.K. Georges’ group, who pioneered the field of controlled radical polymerisation. In 2006, he returned to the CERM in Liege as a FNRS post-doctoral researcher and was promoted to FNRS Research Associate in 2010 in the same group. His research interests include controlled radical polymerisation, organometallic chemistry, macromolecular engineering and emulsion polymerisation.

To find out more about the CERM please follow the link.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

Several members of my family are scientists, even chemists, so “I fell early into chemistry”. During my scholarship, I also met excellent science teachers who taught me how important science is for understanding the world we are living in. So, I decided to make it my job. Among all scientific fields, I chose chemistry because it appeared to me as a central and practical discipline.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

Recent progress in controlled radical polymerisation (CRP) is impressive. The increasing precision and complexity of polymer structures achievable and their use in a broad range of applications might suggest that challenges in CRP may soon be non-existent. However, this is not the case and efforts still need to be expended to improve the existing tools and discover new ones in order to finely tune polymer properties. This is what the present Polymer Chemistry article is about. Indeed, poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) (PNVCL) combines valued properties such as water solubility, biocompatibility and thermo-responsiveness, but has not reached its full potential so far due to limitations in macromolecular engineering techniques. Nevertheless, the Organometallic-Mediated Radical Polymerisation (OMRP), a CRP method developed in the lab for many years, permitted us to produce a series of well-defined N-vinylcaprolactam and N-vinylpyrrolidone-based copolymers including statistical, diblock and triblock copolymers, having single or dual thermo-responsive behaviour in water. The high level of control afforded by OMRP allowed us to highlight the crucial impact of the copolymer composition, block length and architecture on the cloud point temperature of each segment and to tune their multistep assembly behaviour. The reversible temperature triggered assembly of such block copolymers in water opens new perspectives in the field of stimuli-responsive encapsulation/release applications.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

My co-authors and I chose Polymer Chemistry because it provides high quality manuscripts in polymer science to a broad audience. This last aspect was crucial in the selection of a journal because our contribution contains progress in both macromolecular engineering and characterisation of the thermal response of copolymers in solution.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

My agenda is still unclear for the next few months but I really would like to attend the Gordon Research Conference on Polymers, South Hadley, MA, USA  in June 2015.

How do you spend your spare time?

I enjoy spending time with my 6-year old son, friends and relatives. I also like reading novels and practice more and more photography. In this respect, I warmly recommend a visit to the photography museum of Charleroi in Belgium.

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

Maybe architect because this profession requires both technical and artistic skills. Having said that, I have no regret at all.

One of my pictures. “Building reflected on water”



Double thermo-responsive hydrogels from poly(vinylcaprolactam) containing diblock and triblock copolymers

Jean-Michel Thomassin,  Kevin Mathieu,   Anthony Kermagoret,   Charles-André Fustin,   Christine Jérôme and   Antoine Debuigne

The thermally-induced gelation and gel properties of concentrated aqueous solutions of double thermoresponsive poly(N-vinylamide)-based di- and triblock copolymers are studied by rheology. The copolymers under investigation, prepared by cobalt-mediated radical polymerisation and coupling reactions, are composed of poly(vinylcaprolactam) (PNVCL) blocks and of a statistical poly(vinylcaprolactam-stat-vinylpyrrolidone) segment with a cloud point temperature (TCP) higher than that of PNVCL. Heating the di- and triblock solutions beyond the first phase transition temperature favours gel formation while heating above the second TCP leads to opaque gels without macroscopic demixing. Moduli of the triblock hydrogels are systematically higher than those of the corresponding diblocks, even above the second transition. Rheological data suggest distinct micellar structures for each copolymer architecture: densely packed micelles of diblocks and 3-D networks of bridged micelles for triblocks. Strain sweep experiments also emphasize the positive effect of the micelle bridging on the elasticity and stability of the hydrogels. The formation and properties of the obtained gels are also shown to depend on the copolymer concentration, block length, and composition. Addition of salt also allows us to tune the phase transition temperatures of these double thermoresponsive hydrogels.


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).



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Author of the Month: Prof. Feihe Huang

Feihe Huang was born in Shaodong, Hunan, China in 1973. He obtained his Bachelor of Polymer Materials Science and Engineering degree from Hefei University of Technology in July 1996 and a Masters in Polymer Chemistry and Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China in July 1999. After a year of studying at the University of Washington, he transferred to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VT) where he joined Prof. Harry W. Gibson’s group in August 2000. He earned the degree of Master of Science in Chemistry in August 2003. He finished his coursework and research for his PhD in Chemistry during the spring of 2005 with the aid and guidance of Prof. Harry W. Gibson. He joined Prof. Peter J. Stang’s group at the University of Utah as a postdoctoral fellow in March 2005. In December 2005, he became a professor of chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University. In March 2008, he became a Qiushi Chair Professor of Zhejiang University. His current research interests are supramolecular polymers and pillar[n]arene supramolecular chemistry.

Awards and honours he has received to date include the William Preston Award for a MS Thesis from VT, a 2004 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad, The Sigma Xi Research Award for Ph.D. Degree Candidates from the VT Chapter of Sigma Xi Research Society, Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award from VT, the Thieme Chemistry Journals Award, the Outstanding Recent Graduate Alumnus Award from VT, a Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers from the Humboldt Foundation, The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Winner (China), Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the Chinese Chemical Society AkzoNobel Chemical Sciences Award. He has published more than 160 supramolecular chemistry papers in journals such as PNAS (2), J. Am. Chem. Soc. (18), Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. (5), Adv. Mater. (5), Chem. Soc. Rev. (5), Acc. Chem. Res. (5), Prog. Polym. Sci. (1). His publications have been cited more than 7700 times and he has a h-index of 49. He has served as a guest editor for Chem. Soc. Rev.Acc. Chem. Res.Chem. Rev.and Chem. Commun. He currently sits on the Advisory Boards of Chemical Society ReviewsChemical Communications, Acta Chim. SinicaMacromoleculesACS Macro Letters and Polymer Chemistry.

For more information about Feihe Huang’s research group visit the website

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

I wanted to make new materials for us to have better lives and a greener world.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

Supramolecular crosslinked polymer gels have tremendous potential as smart materials because they offer a special combination of the elastic behaviour of solids and the microviscous properties of fluids. From many published reports related to supramolecular crosslinked polymer gels, one can reach two general conclusions: 1) there are many kinds of non-convalent interactions that can be used to crosslink polymeric chains to yield supramolecular gels and 2) usually these supramolecular gels contain only one kind of noncovalent crosslink. The consequence of using a single type of supramolecular crosslink is that above some level of external stimulation, sufficient cross-links are broken and subsequently a gel to sol transition usually occurs. This transition, which can occur across a narrow stimulus window, can limit applications in several ways. In order to solve this problem, we are interested in the fabrication of supramolecular crosslinked polymer gels containing two types of physical crosslinks based on two orthogonal supramolecular interactions. In such a system, one supramolecular crosslink can be used to maintain the gel state and the other to change the crosslinking density of the gel under external stimuli, thereby giving rise to the macroscale expansion-contraction behaviour of the gel without the gel-sol transition. The roles of the two networks can be reversed, allowing for a multi-responsive, expansion-contraction system that will be more adaptive. Finally, addition of both stimuli will allow breakdown of the gel. In this Polymer Chemistry article, we report that exactly such a double supramolecular crosslinked polymer gel based on hydrogen bonding and a macrocycle threading process achieves these properties.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Firstly, Polymer Chemistry is a very good journal and it is great to publish my work in it. Secondly, I am an Advisory Board member for Polymer Chemistry and I want to contribute to the development of this journal.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I am attending the First Artificial Molecular Switches and Motors Gordon Research Conference which will be held at Stonehill College, Easton, MA (USA) on 7th-12th June 2015. Follow the link for more information about this conference.

How do you spend your spare time?

Playing with my son, reading, listen to music, and travelling.

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

I would be a high-school teacher because I want to work with and help young people.


Feihe Huang's group


A double supramolecular crosslinked polymer gel exhibiting macroscale expansion and contraction behavior and multistimuli responsiveness

Xiaofan Ji, Kecheng Jie, Steve Zimmerman and Feihe Huang

Supramolecular crosslinked polymer gels show special properties largely as a result of the combined mechanical properties contributed by the covalently linked polymer chains and the reversible, stimuli-responsive supramolecular crosslinks. Most supramolecular crosslinked polymer gels contain only one kind of physical cross-link. Herein we report a novel supramolecular polymer gel containing two types of physical crosslinks based on two kinds of non-covalent interactions that are orthogonal: DAN-DeUG quadruply hydrogen-bonding interactions and benzo-21-crown-7/dialkylammonium salt host-guest interactions. One of the crosslinked networks is used to maintain the gel state while the other modulates the crosslink density through an external stimuli, thereby causing a volume change of the gel. This double supramolecular crosslinked polymer gel shows macroscale expansion and contraction behaviour and multistimuli responsiveness. Therefore, we successfully demonstrate that the macroscopic property changes of supramolecular systems can be induced by controlled self-assembly on the molecular scale.


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.


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Author of the Month: Prof. Jacques Lalevée

Prof. Jacques Lalevée was born in Remiremont (France) in 1976. After studying Physical Chemistry at the University of Nancy (now University of Lorraine), he received his Ph.D. degree in Materials Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Jean Pierre Fouassier from Mulhouse in 2002. After approximately one-year of postdoctoral research with Prof. Gerd Kothe (Germany), he joined the “Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Mulhouse (ENSCMu)” in September, 2004. He was promoted to full professor in September, 2009. Since 2011, Jacques has been a Professor at the “Institut Universitaire de France (IUF-Paris)”. His current research interests encompass free radical chemistry, the design of new (photo)polymerisation initiating systems and new polymers, as well as mechanistic elucidation in polymer chemistry. He has published nearly 200 peer-reviewed papers with an H-index of 29.

He was awarded the Guy Ourisson 2013 Prize as well as the national prize of the French polymer group (GFP) in 2014.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

I became really interested in chemistry at high school. I was fascinated by chemical reactions and the possibility of understanding events at this molecular scale. I have always been interested in free radical chemistry as many different reaction pathways can be expected from these chemical species. The “positive” use of free radicals in polymerisation processes was always a challenge for me; particularly the possibility of triggering processes by light for perfect time and spatial controls.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

Light-induced polymerisation technique is a promising approach for the fabrication of various polymeric materials due to its environmental, economic and production benefits. This technique is mainly based on the photochemically generated reactive species (e.g. radicals or cations, produced from the photochemical reactions of photoinitiating systems after the absorption of light) to rapidly transform the specially formulated reactive liquids to solids (3D polymeric networks for various materials) at room temperature. Recently, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have attracted increased attention as potential irradiation sources for photopolymerisation processes substituting traditional mercury UV lamps; their advantages include being more environmentally friendly, having better light output, higher operating efficiency and lower cost and energy consumption.

Recently, the use of metal based complexes as photoredox catalysts in polymer science has generated lots of interest and is actually a huge challenge. In the present paper, we propose a new iridium complex (Ir(btp)2(tmd)) as a novel photoredox catalyst with enhanced efficiency under visible lights (laser diodes, LEDs and household halogen lamp) for i) cationic polymerisation, ii) free radical polymerisation, iii) controlled/living radical polymerisation and iv) polymer surface modification, including micropatterning by laser direct writing.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

The Royal Society of Chemistry is clearly one of the leading societies and accordingly its polymer journal “Polymer Chemistry” has rapidly emerged as a leader journal in Polymer Science. The wide international readership, the quick submission and review system are also particularly interesting.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

The European Polymer Congress (Dresden, Germany in June 2015) or 11th International Symposium on Ionic Polymerization (Bordeaux – France July 2015).

How do you spend your spare time?

Obviously, I am willing to spend more time with my family. I like cycling, and would like to dedicate more time to it.

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

I would become a teacher in middle school, it was my original idea, but I met excellent professors in the University and they have opened my mind to research.


Photoredox catalysis using a new iridium complex as an efficient toolbox for radical, cationic and controlled polymerizations under soft blue to green lights

Sofia Telitel, Frederic Dumur, Siham Telitel, Olivier Soppera, Marc Lepeltier, Yohann Guillaneuf, Julien Poly, Fabrice Morlet-Savary, Philippe Fioux, Jean-Pierre Fouassier, Didier Gigmes and Jacques Lalevée

A new iridium complex (nIr) was designed and investigated as a photoinitiator catalyst for radical and cationic polymerization upon very soft irradiations (lights ranging from 457 to 532 nm). A ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of an epoxy monomer was easily promoted through the interaction between nIr and an iodonium salt (Iod) upon light. In radical polymerization, nIr can be efficient in combination with phenacyl bromide (PBr) and optionally an amine. These photoinitiating systems work according to an original oxidative cycle and a regeneration of nIr is observed. A control of the methyl methacrylate polymerization (conducted under a 462 nm light) with 1.2–1.6 polydispersity indexes was displayed. Surface modifications by direct laser write was also easily carried out for the first time through surface re-initiation experiments, i.e. the dormant species being reactivated by light in the presence of nIr; the polymer surfaces were analyzed by XPS. The chemical mechanisms were examined through laser flash photolysis, NMR, ESR and size exclusion chromatography experiments.


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).


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Author of the Month: Prof. Anthony Convertine

Anthony studied Chemistry at Edison College in Southwest Florida before transferring to the University of Southern Mississippi where he obtained his BS and PhD in Polymer Science and Engineering.  Under the supervision of his advisor, Professor Charles McCormick, he worked on preparing water-soluble polymers by RAFT polymerization.  Following the completion of his PhD studies he moved to Seattle Washington to do a postdoc with Professor Patrick Stayton and Allan Hoffman.  During his postdoc he worked on applying RAFT synthetic methodology to develop polymeric materials for delivering biologic drugs.  Following his postdoc, he took a position as a research assistant professor in the department of BioEngineering at the University of Washington.  To date Anthony has publish almost 60 research articles and patents and developed technology that has led to the establishment of a local area start up company.

His research is focused primarily on the application of controlled free radical polymerization and thiol-ene/Michael chemistry to develop powerful new delivery technologies that will enable the realization of therapies based on intracellularly active biologic drugs. These agents have the potential to revolutionize the treatment of serious diseases such as cancer and antibiotic resistant bacteria while minimizing harmful side effects.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

I think that I have always wanted to become a chemist.  From a very early age I enjoyed mixing whatever chemicals I could find to see what would happen. When I first started college I was required to take several chemistry classes as part of the pre-pharmacy curriculum. Along the way my organic chemistry instructor, Professor Scott, really inspired me to change my major to chemistry. His lab courses were fascinating and I was really intrigued by the idea that complex organic molecules could be made to react in deliberate ways. Soon after that I took a polymer chemistry course by Professor McCormick, who would later become my PhD advisor, which really sparked my imagination and cemented my desire to be a chemist.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article ?

The starting point for writing this article was the desire to create a new class of drug delivery system that could combine the high drug loading capacity and well defined structure of polymer-drug conjugates with the long circulation times of nanoparticle-based systems. Controlled radical polymerization methodologies, including the versatile reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization process, are rapidly moving to the forefront in construction of drug delivery vehicles. The use of RAFT polymerization from multifunctional scaffolds provided a scientifically interesting approach for preparing these materials with spatially defined biofunctional segments.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Polymer chemistry is quickly becoming the premier journal for publishing cutting edge polymer science research across a range of polymer-related disciplines. The editors at Polymer Chemistry do a great job of making the manuscript figures and layouts look really sharp.  We are really excited about this work and felt that Polymer Chemistry would give our manuscripts excellent visibility. The work detailed in this manuscript was conducted along side a second closely related study so it made a lot of sense to publish them together.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

We recently presented this work at the 2014 Zing Polymer Chemistry Conference in Cancun Mexico.  We are planning to attend the 2015 BMES meeting in Tampa, Florida.

How do you spend your spare time?

The Pacific Northwest is just amazing! There are so many natural wonders here that there is always a new hike to go on or a spectacular coastline to explore. I am also an aspiring surfer and take every opportunity to head down to the California coast to catch some waves. In the summer I like to head back to my hometown in Southwest Florida to fish for redfish with my cousin.  The mangrove shorelines and grassy flats have some of the best fishing in the world and are uniquely beautiful.  During football season you can usually find me at the local pub rooting for the Seattle Seahawks.

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

Pharmacist. Medicinal compounds and their affect on the human body have always fascinated me.


Well-defined single polymer nanoparticles for the antibody-targeted delivery of chemotherapeutic agents

D. D. Lane,   D. Y. Chiu,  F. Y. Su,   S. Srinivasan,   H. B. Kern,   O. W. Press,   P. S. Stayton and   A. J. Convertine

Aqueous reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization was employed to prepare a series of linear copolymers of N,N-dimethylacrylamide (DMA) and 2-hydroxyethylacrylamide (HEAm) with narrow Đ values over a molecular weight range spanning three orders of magnitude (103 to 106 Da). Trithiocarbonate-based RAFT chain transfer agents (CTAs) were grafted onto these scaffolds using carbodiimide chemistry catalyzed with DMAP. The resultant graft chain transfer agent (gCTA) was subsequently employed to synthesize polymeric brushes with a number of important vinyl monomer classes including acrylamido, methacrylamido, and methacrylate. Brush polymerization kinetics were evaluated for the aqueous RAFT polymerization of DMA from a 10 arm gCTA. Polymeric brushes containing hydroxyl functionality were further functionalized in order to prepare 2nd generation gCTAs which were subsequently employed to prepare polymers with a brushed-brush architecture with molecular weights in excess of 106 Da. The resultant single particle nanoparticles (SNPs) were employed as drug delivery vehicles for the anthracycline-based drug doxorubicin via copolymerization of DMA with a protected carbazate monomer (bocSMA). Cell-specific targeting functionality was also introduced via copolymerization with a biotin-functional monomer (bioHEMA). Drug release of the hydrazone linked doxorubicin was evaluated as function of pH and serum and chemotherapeutic activity was evaluated in SKOV3 ovarian cancer cells.


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), deputy director of the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine and member of Centre for Advanced Macromolecular Design.


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