Polymer Chemistry Blog

Nicola studied Chemistry at the University of Pisa in Italy, obtaining an MSc in organic and polymer chemistry in 1992 and a PhD in industrial chemistry  in 1996 where he worked under the supervision of Professor Francesco Ciardelli on photochromic and non-linear optically active polymers. During the last year of his PhD he moved to the ETH Zurich, where he joined the group of Ulrich W. Suter in the Department of Materials, first as a visiting researcher and then as a postdoc, focusing on thermally resistant polymers.  After a short spell at the EPF Lausanne, he returned to Zurich in 1999 as an “Oberassistent” in the group of Jeff Hubbell, where he moved into the field of biomaterials and regenerative medicine. He then joined the School of Pharmacy at the University of Manchester in 2003 as a Lecturer and was promoted to Chair in 2005. Since 2010 he has been affiliated to the School of Materials and to that of Medicine at the Institute of Inflammation and Repair. To date, Nicola has published almost 120 research papers, in addition to several reviews and patents.

From a chemical point of view, his interests mainly lie in the design of biologically responsive materials, in form functional surfaces, hydrogels and colloids (nanoparticles, micelles). From a biological perspective, his main focus is on inflammation, and specifically on the control over the inflammatory activation of leukocytes and mesenchymal cells through e.g. the use of Reactive Oxygen Species- responsive materials.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

For certain chemistry was in my blood, not in my genes though: even including distant relatives I am the only scientist in the family. Although, I cannot deny an academic background: both parents were Middle Ages historians.

Possibly the main attraction of chemistry was its two-face character; a bit like the Roman god Janus. On one side, the interface with physics that provides certainties and allows quantitative predictions; and then a more qualitative side, based on intuitions that border the artistic domain (think of chess-playing like retrosynthetic exercises of organic chemists).

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

The starting point was a medical need. There are tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of individuals carrying silicone-based implants, which almost inevitably trigger foreign body reactions due to a poor interface with the host. Just think of the number of breast augmentation operations carried out every year to get an idea of the size of the problem.

The study published in Polymer Chemistry originates from the idea to develop new approaches to modify silicone surfaces, since they are very recalcitrant towards controlled chemical functionalisation.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work? (DOI: 10.1039/C4PY00941J)

A mixed bag of reasons. Principally, Polymer Chemistry is a great home for the rapid publication of studies that employ well-defined polymer architectures. Additionally, this work nicely follows and concludes a first, synthesis-based paper that we published in Polymer Chemistry last year (DOI: 10.1039/C3PY00273J), therefore it just made sense to us to submit this manuscript to the same journal

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

MRS in Boston, beginning of December 2014.

How do you spend your spare time?

I always feel great in a vegetable or tree garden, ploughing and sowing for example.

I am also an erratic music listener; currently I am quite mad for the brit pop from the ‘90s, but also for baroque and XVIII century music (Corelli, Vivaldi, Bach, Albinoni, down to Mozart). Finally, I have always had a passion for photography, which – sign of the times – is now channelled mostly through my iPhone (https://www.flickr.com/photos/95411832@N05/).

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

Linguist. Always been fascinated by the structure and history of languages.

Surface modification of silicone via colloidal deposition of amphiphilic block copolymers

Polym. Chem., 2014, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C4PY00941J

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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.

Prof. Jianzhong Du is currently leading a polymer chemistry research group at Tongji University, Shanghai, China. He received his PhD from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2004, and then moved to the University of Sheffield as a postdoctoral fellow with Steve Armes. He held an Alexander von Humboldt research fellow position in Germany in 2006 before moving to Cambridge University in 2008 where he worked as a research associate with Rachel O’Reilly. He was appointed as an ‘Eastern Scholar’ professorship in 2009 and set up his own research group at Tongji University in 2010. His research interests include the synthesis, self-assembly and applications of smart and functional polymers, with a particular interest in polymer vesicles (polymersomes). Currently, he is focusing on the synthesis of designer polymeric materials for water remediation, biocatalysis, biomacromolecules delivery, and antibacterial delivery vehicles (“armed carriers”).

Research website: http://web.tongji.edu.cn/~jzdu/English/index.html

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

In my eyes my mother is a natural “chemist”. As a young child my first inspiration to become a chemist was my mother’s fantastic home-made food—Tofu and sweet malt. I enjoyed helping her harvest soya beans in the field and seeing how she made delicious Tofu for us at home. It was really exciting to witness how the yellow soya beans turned into white Tofu after drying, smashing (by me!), dispersion in boiling water, filtration (to form soya bean milk), flocculation by calcined gypsum (actually I didn’t know it was CaSO₄ until I learned basic chemistry in middle school), and further filtration to remove excess water (sometimes I stood on the board on top of the Tofu to accelerate this process!). The procedure for making sweet malt at home is much more complicated than Tofu but I mastered it before the age of ten. Those traditional Chinese food technologies have thousands of years of history but are full of principles from modern chemistry. My mother carried out those complicated “chemical reactions” based on experience (no measuring tools needed). It was a task full of fun and curiosity for a young boy to participate in. At that time I didn’t know any chemical principles but could see the excellent “results” achieved by my mother. After learning chemistry, I gradually understood why gypsum should be calcined before adding it to the soya bean milk, how Ca²⁺ interacts with protein to form Tofu, and the magic power of green malt in making sweets starting from rice. I think it is the everyday chemistry in my childhood that inspired me to become a chemist.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article? ( DOI: c4py00501e)

Our group has an active program in the synthesis and self-assembly of homopolymers. Compared with well-investigated block copolymers, homopolymers have been considered as a non-ideal building block for self-assembly due to their fuzzy boundary between hydrophobic and hydrophilic moieties. However, we think this unique fuzzy boundary may provide some new opportunities in both self-assembly mechanisms and preparation of functional nanomaterials. Furthermore, it is a challenge to self-assemble hydrophilic homopolymers in pure water into nanostructures. Therefore, we incorporated one terminal alkynyl group into hydrophilic homopolymers to drive their unusual self-assembly in aqueous solution to form a range of nanostructures such as multicompartment vesicles, spherical compound micelles and flower-like complex particles.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Polymer Chemistry is an excellent forum for scientists working in a wide range of sectors, especially for polymer chemists. More and more people are reading this journal. The editorial and publishing teams are well-organised and the dissemination time is short.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

National Congress of Chinese Chemical Society 2014 in Beijing and Macro 2014 in Thailand

How do you spend your spare time?

I have an eight year old son who is learning piano and badminton. So in my spare time, I am his piano and badminton training partner. My hobbies include Chinese traditional literature, jogging and cooking.

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

If not a chemist I would be a writer or a network engineer.

Read Jianzhong Du’s latest paper:

How does a tiny terminal alkynyl end group drive fully hydrophilic homopolymers to self-assemble into multicompartment vesicles and flower-like complex particles?

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.

Guocan Yu was born in Zhejiang, China in 1987. He received his BS degree in polymer materials and engineering from Hefei University of Technology in 2010. Then he joined the laboratory of Professor Feihe Huang at Zhejiang University to pursue his PhD degree in chemistry. From 2013, he was selected as a subgroup leader in Professor Huang’s group. His current research interests are focused on the construction of functional supramolecular amphiphiles, controllable self-assembly based on pillararenes, and their biologically relevant applications. Research Group Website

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

When I was a middle school student, I was interested in Chemistry. I wanted to figure out the reasons behind chemical phenomena. Therefore, I chose chemistry as my major when I was in University. I like chemistry, and I can get a lot of joy from my work everyday.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

In our research group, we are interested in the fabrication of supramolecular polymers with interesting functions on the basis of host–guest recognitions. In this manuscript, we found that the linear supramolecular polymer exhibited pH- and photo- responsiveness. On the other hand, we constructed a photo-responsive supramolecular network based on the same recognition motif. We thought this manuscript was suitable for Polymer Chemistry.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work? (DOI: 10.1039/C4PY01042F )

Polymer Chemistry is a high-level journal in the field of polymer science, and the papers published in this journal are always high-quality. As well, the reviewing and publishing process are very fast.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

The 4th International Conference on Molecular Sensors and Molecular Logic Gates (MSMLG), November 9-12, 2014, Shanghai, China.

How do you spend your spare time?

In my spare time, I like reading chemical or biological literature, because I want to become a knowledgeable person like my boss. Sometimes, I play basketball with my groupmates.

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

Maybe I would be a carpenter, because my father is a carpenter.  He can make a series of nice furniture, he is my idol.

Read Guocan Yu’s latest Polymer Chemistry paper:

Construction of a pillar[5]arene-based linear supramolecular polymer and a photo-responsive supramolecular network

Jie Yang, Zhengtao Li, Yujuan Zhou and Guocan Yu

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.

Dr Marlene Lejars graduated in 2009 from the National School of Chemistry, Biology and Physics (ENSCBP) of Bordeaux, France, and received a Master degree in Chemistry (Polymers and Colloids) from Bordeaux University. She obtained her PhD degree in 2012 at the University of Toulon, France (MAPIEM laboratory, A. Margaillan and C. Bressy as supervisors), working on the synthesis of new polymer binders by the RAFT polymerization for FRC/SPC hybrid antifouling coatings. Following her PhD, she continued her research work at MAPIEM with an expertise in polymer synthesis and characterization, paint formulation, and evaluation of antifouling performances. She is involved in research projects dealing with electro-active antifouling coatings, as well as antifouling coatings for drag reduction (DRACONS project 2013-2017). She is reviewer for journals in the field of polymers including Polymer Chemistry and Journal of Applied Polymer Science. She is also involved in quality and safety management at MAPIEM laboratory.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

During high school, my Chemistry teacher put me forward to compete in a French competition, called “The Olympiads of Chemistry”. This was the opportunity for me to discover several aspects of Chemistry in more detail through theoretical courses and practical experimentation. I won the first award of the competition organized in Bordeaux. Thanks to this competition, I discovered that Chemistry was a fascinating world and I decided that I would become a chemist.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

The MAPIEM laboratory is specialized on the fouling issue especially on ships hulls, and the development of antifouling coatings. There are two main types on the market: (i) Self-Polishing Coatings (SPC) based on hydrolyzable polymers which release toxic biocides into the environment, and (ii) Fouling Release Coatings which are non-adhesive poly(dimethylsiloxane) matrix coatings with no biocide. We decided to synthesize new antifouling binders by mixing both technologies through the synthesis of copolymers based on tri-alkylsilyl methacrylates (used in SPC binders) and poly(dimethylsiloxane) (used in FRC binders). The RAFT process was used to control the architecture and molecular weights of polymers. We found that the diblock copolymers exhibited much lower surface energies than the statistical copolymers.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work? (DOI: 10.1039/C3PY01603J)

Polymer Chemistry is a leading journal in the field of polymer science with high quality published papers. The reviewing and publishing process is very fast.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

Our laboratory will organize the 18th International Congress of Marine Fouling and Corrosion (ICMCF) in Toulon, France (June 19-23, 2016).

How do you spend your spare time?

I spend my spare time doing sport such as swimming, hiking and rollerblading, but also cooking or going to the cinema. I like travelling abroad to discover new cultures, cuisines and ways of life.

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

I would probably be a primary school teacher or a pastry chef as I love to prepare cakes, especially the delicious “canelés” from Bordeaux!

Read Dr Lejars’ latest Polymer Chemistry paper:

Synthesis and characterization of diblock and statistical copolymers based on hydrolyzable siloxy silylester methacrylate monomers
Marlène Lejars, André Margaillan and Christine Bressy
Polym. Chem., 2014,5, 2109-2117 DOI: 10.1039/C3PY01603J

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.

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.