Polymer Chemistry Blog

We are pleased to introduce the Polymer Chemistry Outstanding Student Paper Award. This new annual award recognises outstanding work published in the journal, for which a substantial component of the research was conducted by a student. Read below for more information.

Our 2019 Winner

The inaugural recipient of the 2019 Polymer Chemistry Outstanding Student Paper award is Ms Evelina Liarou, currently a PhD student within the Haddleton group at the University of Warwick, for her contributions towards the paper titled ‘Ultra-low volume oxygen tolerant photoinduced Cu-RDRP’ (DOI: 10.1039/C8PY01720D).

In this paper the authors introduce the first example of an oxygen-tolerant, ultra-low volume, photo-induced copper-RDRP method. A range of hydrophobic, hydrophilic and semi-fluorinated monomers are readily polymerized, achieving low dispersity values and quantitative monomer conversions in the absence of any conventional deoxygenation method. Notably, the reported conditions are compatible with extremely low volumes (as low as 5 μL total reaction volume), but can also be applied to larger scale polymerizations (up to 0.5 L). A further highlight of the paper is the use of an oxygen probe that allows for online monitoring of oxygen consumption, which significantly enhances the fundamental understanding of such polymerization protocols. Such an approach allows even non-experts to synthesise a range of materials with minimal effort and training.

Read the full article here now!

Eligibility

In order to be eligible for this award, the nominee must:

• Have been a student at the time the research was conducted.
• Be first author of a research article published in 2019 in Polymer Chemistry.

Selection Process

In order to choose the winner of the 2019 Outstanding Student Paper Award, a shortlist of articles that were published throughout the year, was selected by the editorial office and then subsequently assessed by the journal’s Editorial Board members. The winner was selected based upon the significance, impact and quality of the research.

Prize

The winner of the Outstanding Student Paper Award will receive an engraved plaque and a travel bursary of £500 to use towards a meeting of their choice.

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To have your paper considered for the 2020 Polymer Chemistry Outstanding Student Award, simply indicate upon submission if the first author of the paper fulfils this criteria.

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for Polymer Chemistry in 2017, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

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

Dr Athina Anastasaki University of California, Santa Barbara
Dr C. Remzi Becer, Queen Mary University of London, ORCID: 0000-0003-0968-6662
Dr Cyrille Boyer, University of New South Wales, ORCID: 0000-0002-4564-4702
Professor Yuanli Cai, Soochow University, ORCID: 0000-0001-5473-485X 
Professor Dr Gaojian Chen, Soochow University, ORCID: 0000-0002-5877-3159
Dr Sophie M Guillaume, CNRS – Université de Rennes, ORCID: 0000-0003-2917-8657 
Dr Dominik Konkolewicz, Miami University, ORCID: 0000-0002-3828-5481 
Dr Elango Kumarasamy, Columbia University
Dr Zachariah Page, University of California, Santa Barbara, ORCID: 0000-0002-1013-5422
Dr Per Zetterlund, University of New South Wales, ORCID: 0000-0003-3149-4464

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

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

Following the success of Peer Review Week in September 2016 (dedicated to reviewer recognition) during which we published a list of our top reviewers, we are delighted to announce that we will continue to recognise the contribution that our reviewers make to the journal by announcing our Outstanding Reviewers each year.

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for Polymer Chemistry in 2016, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

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

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

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

Yesterday, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the American Chemical Society Publications Division, ACS Publications, both signed the ORCID Open Letter committing to unambiguous identification of all authors that publish in our journals.

The official press release can be found here: http://rsc.li/orcid

In brief, this partnership with ORCID will resolve ambiguity in researcher identification caused by name changes, cultural differences in name presentation, and the inconsistent use of name abbreviations, thereby ensuring their contributions are appropriately recognized and credited.

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was jointly awarded to Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa for their work on the design and synthesis of molecular machines.

Developing the world’s smallest machines: Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Fraser Stoddart and Bernard Feringa

Jean-Pierre Sauvage took the first step towards a molecular machine in 1983, when he successfully  linked two ring-shaped molecules together to form a chain, called a catenane. The molecules in this chain are linked by a mechanical bond, allowing the two interlocked rings to move relative to each other, performing like a tiny machine.

Fraser Stoddart took the second step in 1991, when he developed a rotaxane by threading a molecular ring onto a thin molecular axle. The ring is able to move along the axle enabling a number of developments such as a molecular lift, a molecular muscle and a molecule-based computer chip.

Bernard Feringa took the third step by developing the first molecular motor in 1999 when he got a molecular rotor blade to spin continually in the same direction. Using molecular motors, he has rotated a glass cylinder that is 10,000 times bigger than the motor and also designed a nanocar!

The ground breaking steps taken by the 2016 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry in developing molecular machinery have resulted in a toolbox of chemical structures that can be used by researchers around the world to build anything from artificial switches and release-targeted drugs to novel energy storage systems!

To celebrate these remarkable achievements, we are delighted to present a collection of recent Soft Matter and Polymer Chemistry articles on molecular machines FREE to read until 1 December 2016!

We invite you to submit your best research related to molecular machines to Soft Matter and Polymer Chemistry!

Reviews
Integrated motion of molecular machines in supramolecular polymeric scaffolds
Xuzhou Yan, Bo Zheng and Feihe Huang
Polym. Chem., 2013, 4, 2395-2399
DOI: 10.1039/C3PY00060E

Research articles
Topological energy storage of work generated by nanomotors
Fabian Weysser, Olivier Benzerara, Albert Johner and Igor M. Kulić
Soft Matter, 2015, 11, 732-740
DOI: 10.1039/C4SM02294G

Hydrodynamics and propulsion mechanism of self-propelled catalytic micromotors: model and experiment
Longqiu Li, Jiyuan Wang, Tianlong Li, Wenping Song and Guangyu Zhang
Soft Matter, 2014, 10, 7511-7518
DOI: 10.1039/C4SM01070A

Construction of muscle-like metallo-supramolecular polymers from a pillar[5]arene-based [c2]daisy chain
Lingyan Gao, Zibin Zhang, Bo Zheng and Feihe Huang
Polym. Chem., 2014, 5, 5734-5739
DOI: 10.1039/C4PY00733F

An acid/base switchable and reversibly cross-linkable polyrotaxane
Shijun Li, Guan-Huan Weng, Wei Lin, Zhi-Bin Sun, Mi Zhou, Bin Zhu, Yang Ye and Jing Wu
Polym. Chem., 2014, 5, 3994-4001
DOI: 10.1039/C4PY00409D

Dual stimuli-responsive supramolecular pseudo-polyrotaxane hydrogels
Lipeng Zhou, Jiaxi Li, Quan Luo, Junyan Zhu, Huixin Zou, Yuzhou Gao, Liang Wang, Jiayun Xu, Zeyuan Dong and Junqiu Liu
Soft Matter, 2013, 9, 4635-4641
DOI: 10.1039/C3SM27776C

pH-responsive dendritic polyrotaxane drug-polymer conjugates forming nanoparticles as efficient drug delivery system for cancer therapy
Yang Kang, Xiao-Mei Zhang, Sheng Zhang, Li-Sheng Ding and Bang-Jing Li
Polym. Chem., 2015, 6, 2098-2107
DOI: 10.1039/C4PY01431F

Phototriggered supramolecular polymerization of a [c2]daisy chain rotaxane
Xin Fu, Rui-Rui Gu, Qi Zhang, Si-Jia Rao, Xiu-Li Zheng, Da-Hui Qu and He Tian
Polym. Chem., 2016, 7, 2166-2170
DOI: 10.1039/C6PY00309E

Also of interest: Find out more about the three Chemistry Nobel Laureates and their research.