Polymer Chemistry Blog

Sankarasekaran Shanmugaraju is an associate professor of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad (IITPKD), Kerala, India. He received his Ph.D. degree in 2013 with a gold medal for the best Ph.D. thesis in Inorganic Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. He then moved to Trinity College Dublin, Ireland as an Irish Research Council (IRC) postdoctoral fellow. In October 2018, he commenced his independent position as an assistant professor of Chemistry at IITPKD. The main objective of his group’s current research activities is “the rational design and synthesis of novel structures, smart materials, and functional porous polymers for applications in sustainable energy, environment, and biomedicine”.

Read Sankarasekaran’s open access Emerging Investigator article Tröger’s base-containing fluorenone organic polymer for discriminative fluorescence sensing of sulfamethazine antibiotic at ppb level in the water medium, DOI D3PY00857F.

Check out our interview with Sankarasekaran below. 

How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

Polymer Chemistry is a wonderful platform to showcase research from polymer and macromolecular chemistry. My experience so far has been very pleasant working with Polymer Chemistry. The review process was smooth and the editorial team was very helpful during our paper submission.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

We are interested in the design and synthesis of functional organic and hybrid polymers for applications in fluorescence-based sensing and adsorptive removal of environmental pollutants and contaminants. The most exciting thing about our work is the easy design and facial modulation of the functional properties of polymers. The synthesis of targeted polymer with desired properties and superior materials properties is often challenging. 

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

The most important question to be asked in this field is how the structure, texture, and functional properties of polymeric materials can be tuned toward real-world applications. How can the sensing and adsorption properties can be modulated to develop efficient molecular adsorbents?

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

Identify unique research problems and explore them. The field of polymer chemistry has limitless opportunities to unveil.

Find out more about Sankarasekaran’s research on his faculty webpage. 

Leena studied Chemistry at the University of Rajasthan and Polymer Science & Technology at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India. She completed a PhD in Polymer Chemistry in 2010 from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. She has received several awards and scholarships during her studies, including a DAAD scholarship to undertake a Master thesis at the Technical University Dresden, Germany, and a Faculty of Engineering Scholarship from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. After the completion of her PhD, she worked as a Senior Scientist from 2011 till 2015 at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, USA. In 2015, Leena joined the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) as an Assistant Professor where she has been promoted to Associate Professor in 2020. She received a Faculty Research Award in the Early Career Category (2020) from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi for her contributions in functionalized porous materials. She has served as an Academic Editor at PLOS One since August 2018. She is an expert committee member in several panels at the Department of Science and Engineering, India as well as served as a reviewer for several international peer-reviewed high impact journals, for example, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, Polymer Chemistry, Journal of Materials Chemistry B, etc. Since she joined IITD, she has been a frequent visiting academic at Australian Universities, including University of New South Wales and University of Sydney. She has been collaborating with eminent researchers based in India, USA, Germany, Australia, and Taiwan.

Read Leena’s Emerging Investigator article Polymer grafting on nitrone functionalized green silica via “grafting from” and “grafting to” approaches through enhanced spin capturing polymerization and a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction, DOI D3PY00712J.

Check out our interview with Leena below:

How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

Polymer Chemistry is one of the premier journals to publish research work directed towards polymer synthesis, its mechanism and application. For the currently published manuscript, Polymer Chemistry was my first choice for submission and we are grateful to the Editor and reviewers for finding the work suitable for publication in Polymer Chemistry. I am very lucky to have hard a working graduate student like Lukkumanul Hakkim N. This is the first Polymer Chemistry publication from my group, Surface and Macromolecular Chemistry Laboratory, and we are wishing for many more.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

The most exciting and challenging part of my research is to design scalable hybrid materials through the combination of nanomaterials and polymers for a wide variety of applications.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

If you really want something, be patient and work towards it. I have waited 13 years to get my first Polymer Chemistry publication, which was a dream since I was a graduate student when the Polymer Chemistry journal was launched in 2010.

Find out my about Leena’s research on her lab’s web page or follow her on LinkedIn or twitter @Nebhani_IITD.

Max was born and raised in Colorado and obtained his B.S. in Chemistry from the Colorado School of Mines where he began research in synthetic polymer chemistry under the guidance of Prof. Daniel M. Knauss. After graduating in 2009, Max carried out his Ph.D. studies in the laboratories of Prof. Craig J. Hawker at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  His doctoral research focused broadly on the synthesis of functional organic materials and was recognized by the American Chemical Society with the 2016 Henkel Award for Outstanding Graduate Research in Polymer Chemistry. Max conducted postdoctoral work with Prof. Jeffrey S. Moore at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign as a Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellow prior to joining the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Caltech as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry in September 2017.  Research in the Robb group seeks to advance the fundamental understanding of mechanical force transduction at the molecular level and develop strategies to create force-responsive molecules and functional materials. The group’s research has been recognized by a number of awards including the Beckman Young Investigator award, Sloan Research Fellowship, NSF CAREER award, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar award, Rose Hills Foundation Innovator Award, and the PMSE Young Investigator award.

Read Max’s Emerging Investigator Series article, Mechanochemical reactivity of a multimodal 2H-bis-naphthopyran mechanophore, DOI: D3PY00344B.

Check out Max’s thoughts on the future directions for his field of research below:

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

The ability to design polymers that distinguish between different stress states through discrete visual cues will enable new opportunities for stress sensing. However, this type of behavior is still relatively rare in soft materials.  

Keep with Max’s research and the latest news from his lab by following him on twitter @maxwell_robb and @therobbgroup, or check out his lab’s website.

Zi-Hao Guo received his B.Sc. degree in 2008 from Nankai University. In 2013, he earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Jian Pei at Peking University. He worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Texas A&M University in 2014–2016 and Yale University in 2016-2018. From 2018, he started his independent career as Assistant Professor at School of Emergent Soft Matter, South China University of Technology (SCUT). Currently, his research interests are conjugated semiconducting polymers for organic electronics and solid-state electrolytes for lithium batteries.

Read Zi-Hao’s Emerging Investigator article, An N-oxide containing conjugated semiconducting polymer with enhanced electron mobility via direct (hetero)arylation polymerization, DOI: D3PY00207A.

Check out our interview with Zi-Hao below:

How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

Polymer Chemistry is a reputable journal with broad readership cover from synthesis to applications of polymers. Due to special optical and electrical properties of conjugated polymers, they have a wide range of applications in organic electronics with increasing interest from both industry and academia. I am very excited that I can share our group’s recent research results on N-type semiconducting conjugated polymers.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

I think the most exciting aspect of this work is that small changes in chemical structure of polymers give us completely different carrier transport properties. This aspect drives me to design and synthesize new conjugated polymers and explore their properties. The most challenging thing in my research is exploring green, non-toxic and environmentally friendly polymerization reactions for the synthesis of conjugated polymers

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

Insulated alkyl chains are usually introduced to conjugated polymers in order to achieve good solubility for solution processing. In my opinion, the most important question to be asked is how to minimize the use of insulating alkyl chains but still get a high-performance material that can be dissolved and processed.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

When you start your own research as a principle investigator, be sure to carefully consider where you are going for the next 5 to 10 years. Once you’ve made a deliberate decision, believe in yourself and keep doing it, you’ll succeed.

Keep up with all of Zi-Hao’s research on the Guo lab website.

Takuya Isono is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Engineering at Hokkaido University in Japan. He earned his Ph.D. degree in polymer chemistry from the Graduate School of Chemical Sciences and Engineering at Hokkaido University in 2014. During his Ph.D. studies from 2012 to 2014, he was a JSPS research fellow (DC1). After completing his Ph.D., he began his research career as an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Engineering at Hokkaido University in 2014. Since April 2021, he has held his current position at Hokkaido University. His expertise is in precise polymer synthesis, and his research interests are currently centred on organocatalytic polymerization, bio-based polymers, block copolymers, and topological polymers. He has received scientific awards for his research, including the Inoue Research Award for Young Scientists from the Inoue Foundation for Science in 2016, the Polymer Research Encouraging Award from the Society of Polymer Science, Japan in 2020, and the Research Encourage Award from the Chemical Society of Japan in 2021.

Read Takuya’s Emerging Investigator Paper, Installation of the adamantyl group in polystyrene-block-poly(methyl mathacrylate) via Friedel–Crafts alkylation to modulate the microphase-separated morphology and dimensions, DOI: D3PY00113J.

Check out our interview with Takuya below:

How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

Our group is working on a diverse range of research, such as the search for novel polymerization catalysts, development of new living polymerization systems, investigation of the structure and physical properties of architecturally complex polymers, and creation of functional polymer materials. In my opinion, Polymer Chemistry is an invaluable publication media that offer an excellent platform for sharing such a broad range of polymer science research findings with the interdisciplinary research community.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

My research interests in polymer science involve synthesizing functional polymer materials, investigating their physical and functional properties, and using these insights to design further refined materials. Within those research topics, the synthesis of materials itself is challenging, and the subsequent study of their properties and functions is even more so. As my expertise lies in polymer synthesis, I feel a great sense of achievement when a synthesis goes smoothly as expected. I am thrilled when I observe beautiful structures or patterns under a microscope or through scattering measurements. I am also excited to discuss interesting experimental results or the potential for new research themes with colleagues and students.

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

I believe that proposing a range of innovative ideas to facilitate the sustainable use of polymer materials will be a crucial challenge in the field of polymer chemistry for the next decade.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

Having good mentors and collaborators is extremely important not only for successfully completing your research projects, but also for advancing your career. Without their guidance and support, I would not have been able to continue pursuing my research and academic career.

Ignazio Roppolo is actually assistant professor in Experimental Physics of Matter at Department of Applied Science and Technology- Politecnico di Torino (Turin, Italy). Since his bachelor degree (in 2006), he was involved in photopolymerization field and in photoactivated chemistry. After achieving his PhD in Materials Science and Technology (2012), he moved to Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) as a post-doc researcher, where he started to work on the development of photocurable organic electronics. In 2015, still in IIT, he moved his interests towards new photocurable materials for 3D printing. In 2017 he moved to Politecnico di Torino, establishing a laboratory dedicated to 3D printing, specifically focused on light activated technologies, which goals spans over different application fields: from biomedical to energy, from sensors to microreactors. The underlying idea carried out in his laboratory is to control chemical and physical properties of the materials and to play with design properties, to achieve synergistic effects in functional devices, thanks to 3D printing. He is also research fellow at University of Warwick (Coventry, UK) and Italian Institute of Technology (IIT).

Read Ignazio’s Emerging Investigator article, “Colorimetric 3D printable base-detectors exploiting halocromic core-substituted naphthalenediimides“, DOI 10.1039/D2PY01593E.

Check out our interview with Ignazio interview below:

How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

Polymer Chemistry is an amazing forum for the publication of advancements in polymer science, since it merges a rigorous approach to the field with the interest towards cutting-edges applications and innovations. In this case, I’m delighted to have the chance to show novel uses for 3D printable polymers.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

Light-induced 3D printing is really exploding now. When I started to work on this topic (2015), there were few groups that were trying to add material and chemical knowledges in 3D printing, while now there are hundreds of papers every year. Nonetheless, there are still many rooms for research, aiming at fulfilling the premises that 3D printing is promising. This is contemporarily the most exciting and the most challenging aspect of the investigations: on the one hand there are the endless new findings that can be discovered, on the other hand the necessity to translate those in something that can be applied in everyday life, beyond scientific curiosity.

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

I believe that the most important question that has to be done when approaching this type of 3D printing technologies is “ How can I integrate design and materials’ properties? What should I do to achieve some synergistic effect?”. In my opinion, in forefront research in this topic, devices’ architecture and characteristics should be designed together. Conversely, we will keep on missing the real potentialities of 3D printing.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

I see in my young collaborators and students a lot of stress, which is related to the pressure that they feel, especially for what regards “scientific metrics” (impact factors, number of publications, citations,…). I believe that the only stress that, as scientists, we should feel, especially in the early-stages of a career, is to produce “good science”, rigorous but at the same time with creativity. When good science is achieved, benefits will arrive: for the self-esteem, for the career, for the scientific community and finally for the society.

Junliang Zhang received his B.S. in Pharmaceutical Engineering (2009) and M.S. in Applied Chemistry (2012) from Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, China. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry in 2017 at the University of Warwick, UK, under the supervision of Prof. Sébastien Perrier, working on the synthesis of multiblock copolymers with intricate nanostructures through reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. He then moved to Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany, as a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Ulrich S. Schubert’s group, to investigate the self-assembly of gradient and multi-block copolymers. In October 2018, he joined the School of Chemistry of and Chemical Engineering at Northwestern Polytechnical University. His current research interests mainly focus on the design and synthesis of liquid crystalline (multi)block copolymers and their applications in elastomeric, thermally conductive, and wave-transparent materials.

Read Junliang’s Emerging Investigator article, ‘Enhancing intrinsic thermal conductivities of epoxy resins by introducing biphenyl mesogen-containing liquid crystalline co-curing agents’ DOI: 10.1039/D2PY01157C

Check out our interview with Junliang below

1. How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

Polymer Chemistry is one of the leading journals in design, synthesis, and application of polymeric materials. The submission and reviewing experience has always been very pleasant. By submitting our manuscripts in Polymer Chemistry, we can always expect a professional and timely processing. I am very excited to publish our work on thermally conductive polymeric materials in Polymer Chemistry.

2. What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

What I am most excited about at the moment is we can make polymers with precisely controlled molecular structures, the properties and functionalities of which can be tuned on demand. The biggest challenge is how to make our designed polymeric materials through a straight-forward procedure and at a low cost for practical applications.

Hossein Roghani-Mamaqani received his BSc and MSc degrees in polymer engineering at Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT). He was awarded the outstanding MSc researcher prize by AUT in 2009. He completed his PhD course in 2013 at AUT and has been honored as a highly intelligent student in his MSc and PhD courses by AUT talented student association. He was selected as recognized PhD student by National Elite Foundation in 2011-2013 and also Iran’s recognized PhD student by ministry of science in 2013. He worked in Petrochemical Research and Technology Company as a researcher from 2007 to 2009. He also worked as a researcher in Research Institute of Petroleum Industry from 2009 to 2013. He joined Sahand University of Technology (SUT) as an assistant professor in 2013. He was nominated as the recognized young assistant professor by National Elite Foundation in 2013. He was selected as the recognized researcher at Polymer Engineering Department of SUT in 2015, 2018, and 2021 and also as the recognized researcher at SUT in 2019-2021. He was selected as the recognized researcher at East Azarbaijan province in 2020 and recognized Elite Scientist by Iran Science Elites Federation in 2021. He was also selected as the outstanding young researcher in chemical engineering by Iran Academy of Sciences in 2022. Currently, he is a professor of polymer engineering at SUT. His research interest is in the area of polymer chemistry, controlled radical polymerization, surface modification reactions, polymer colloids, hydrogels, optical sensors, and also smart polymers.

Read Hossein’s Emerging Investigator review article,‘Water treatment using stimuli-responsive polymers’

Check out our interview with Hossein below:

1. How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

Polymer Chemistry is one of the leading journals in the field of polymer design, synthesis, and applications. Professional editorial board, timely reviewing and publication, interesting scope with emphasis on the new polymerization methods, and publication of high-quality articles make this journal totally fitted to my interests. By taking my research field into consideration, Polymer Chemistry is a right place to publish new results in the synthesis and applications of colloidal polymers, living polymers with well-defined structures, and smart polymers.

2. What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

The structure and property relationship in polymers can be manipulated by the polymerization methods. My group is able to synthesize well-defined polymer structures, surface-grafted polymers, and colloidal polymers with tailored characteristics. For instance, in the design and synthesis of smart photo-responsive polymers, polymer structure can affect optical properties of the final products, which has applications in anticounterfeiting systems, sensors, smart coatings, smart membranes, etc. Photochromic and fluorescent polymers with the ability of color changing and light emission in response to different stimuli are among the most exciting smart polymers.

3. In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

How can we inspire from nature to design polymers with smart characteristics? For example, chameleons display a wide range of body color in response to variations of the environmental conditions. It has been a significant challenge to design and fabricate such systems, with the ability of reversible and fast color change. The other example is self-cleaning ability of the plant leaves, flowers, butterfly, etc. which is used in the preparation of self-cleaning coatings. It has been a significant challenge to design such systems, with the ability of complete cleaning of different impurities.

How can we use the smart characteristics of polymers in our daily life? Smart polymers can be used in lots of innovative applications, which are shape-memory, self-reporting, self-cleaning, and self-healing polymers, smart coatings, smart windows, spoilage indicators of food materials, anticounterfeiting systems, sensors and indicators, etc. which have been investigated in our recent studies.