Uncategorized – Polymer Chemistry Blog

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Emerging Investigator Series – Elizabeth Elacqua

08 Dec 2023

Beth received her B.S. Degree in Chemistry and Biology from Le Moyne College where her research focused on the total synthesis of natural products. She spent a year at SUNY-Environmental Science and Forestry at the Michael Szwarc Polymer Research Institute, then went to the University of Iowa. Beth worked in the research group of Leonard R. MacGillivray, and received her Ph.D. in 2012. After graduation, Beth started as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at New York University working alongside Marcus Weck at New York University from 2013 – 2017. In 2017, she joined the faculty at Penn State. The Elacqua group works at the interface of organic synthesis and polymer chemistry, focusing on grand challenges that lie at the interface of the two fields, and has been supported by the Doctoral New Investigator Award of the ACS and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, along with an NSF Center of Chemical Innovation and NSF CAREER award. Beth’s work has also been recognized by the ACS Division of Organic Chemistry’s Young Academic Investigator Award and the ACS Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering Early Stage Investigator Award, along with the Rustum and Della Roy Materials Innovation Award at Penn State.

Read Beth’s Emerging Investigator article, Synthesis and characterization of a ruthenium-containing copolymer for use as a photoredox catalyst, DOI D3PY00428G.

Read our interview with Beth below:

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

Our group works on a diverse array of research that spans over polymer chemistry, organic synthesis, and catalysis. We often feel that the broad readership of Polymer Chemistry comprises scientists that are interested in all aspects of our group’s work which is often centered in fundamental polymer synthesis and a little less on applications. Thus, it is often a perfect place to submit papers that we feel are exciting from an overall polymer perspective and we know the readership will benefit from these findings.

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

Honestly, all of our group’s main projects have been things that were not necessarily in my wheelhouse when I started academia. With that said, I think my advice would be to not shy away from learning new things that are exciting you and/or your group. New areas and directions can always be bolstered by collaborations and discussions with colleagues as well. It’s genuinely more fun to do the science that excites you and have that be boundless (within reason of course), then it is to feel limited by your background or exposure.

Keep up to date with all of Beth’s research by going to her website or following her on X @beth_elacqua.

Comments Off on Emerging Investigator Series – Elizabeth Elacqua

Paper of the Month: Geared photochemistry: an interdependent heterogeneous near-infrared catalytic system using up-conversion glass and g-CN for CuAAC chemistry

07 Feb 2023

Kocaarslan et al. employ a heterogeneous near-infrared catalytic system using up-conversion glass (UCG) and g-CN to synthesize (macro)molecules via click chemistry.

The efficiency and accessibility of “click” chemistry, and more specifically the copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction (CuAAC), have been valorized in synthetic macromolecular chemistry via a plethora of approaches. In this synthetic arena, photochemical process have been shown to efficiently achieve the in situ reduction of air-stable copper(II) species to the active copper(I) species catalyzing CuAAC.

Expanding the scope of current CuAAC photocatalysis, Yagci and coworkers developed a “geared photochemistry” approach for NIR induced CuAAC click chemistry using a dual-heterogeneous photocatalyst that generates light emission in upconversion materials combined with graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN). To achieve this, it is shown that Tm³⁺ and Yb³⁺ ion-doped zinc-tellurite glass that absorbs laser irradiation at 975 nm and is capable of emitting blue light at 475 nm, can photocatalytically activate g-CN via an internal light emitting process. For the CuAAC process, this visible light excitation of g-CN in the presence of CuCl₂/PMDETA was proven to generate active copper(Ι) species able to catalyze a CuAAC click reaction between various azide and alkyne compounds. This system was proven efficient in click reactions between macromolecular chains such as azide functional polystyrene (PS-N₃) and alkyne functional poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL-alkyne) yielding block copolymers with structurally different segments. In the same vein, photoinduced crosslinking could also be achieved upon irradiation of multifunctional click components (such as bisphenol A di(3-azido-2-hydroxy propan-1-ol) ether and 1-(prop-2-yn-1-yloxy)-2,2-bis((prop-2-yn-1yloxy)methyl) butane) with a 875 nm laser in the presence of mesoporous graphitic carbon nitride (mpg-CN) and CuCl₂/PMDETA under open air conditions within 2 hours. Importantly, the heterogeneous catalyst prepared via the combination of graphitic carbon and UCG could be successfully used several times enhancing the applicability of the system.

The interdependent heterogeneous system using UCG in conjunction with g-CN under NIR light presented in this study, offers a highly efficient click methodology for (macro)molecules in synthetic (polymer) chemistry.

Tips/comments directly from the authors:

Our group’s research activities focus on the development of new photoinitiating systems for macromolecular synthesis. In this line, many photoinitiators acting at wide wavelength range of the electromagnetic spectrum were developed. “Geared photochemistry”, introduced for the first time in this paper, reflects the light-triggered reaction sequence that interdependently proceeds . In this approach, up-conversion glass absorbs light at NIR region and convert it to visible light. Upon absorption of the emitted visible light graphitic carbon nitride (mpg-CN) in the reaction media creates electron and hole pairs. The copper (II) complex, which has no absorbance at these two wavelengths, is reduced from copper II to copper I by the released electrons. After all this gear-like system, copper I ions catalyze the click reaction between azide and alkyne compounds to form a triazole ring. We are happy to publish this work in an important journal in polymer science, Polymer Chemistry.
This approach will open new horizons not only for click chemistry, but also for many synthesis procedures involving electron transfer reactions. It should be considered that the change of absorbance with upconversion glasses is important for many light-activated photocatalysts.

Citation to the paper: Geared photochemistry: an interdependent heterogeneous near-infrared catalytic system using up-conversion glass and g-CN for CuAAC chemistry, Polym. Chem., 2022,13, 6393-6399, DOI: 10.1039/D2PY01075E

Link to the paper:

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2022/py/d2py01075e

Kelly Velonia is saddened to hear about the passing of Prof. Yusuf Yagci, an exceptional scientist and person. Condolences to his family and loved ones. The polymer community will certainly miss him.

Dr. Kelly Velonia is an Advisory Board Member and a Web Writer for Polymer Chemistry. She joined the Department of Materials Science and Technology at the University of Crete in 2007. Research in her group focuses on the synthesis and applications of bioconjugates and biopolymers. You can follow Kelly on twitter @KellyVelonia

Comments Off on Paper of the Month: Geared photochemistry: an interdependent heterogeneous near-infrared catalytic system using up-conversion glass and g-CN for CuAAC chemistry

Polymer Chemistry Overview of 2022

20 Jan 2023

Now that 2022 has come to an end, join us as we look back at some of the highlights of last year and forward to our upcoming activities in 2023!

Polymer Chemistry Top Picks of 2022

We have selected some of the most cited, most downloaded and most shared articles published in Polymer Chemistry from the last year for our Most Popular 2022 collection.

All articles in this collection are FREE to read until 28 February 2023.

Congratulations to all featured authors!

Editorial Board

We would like to thank Professor Wei You for his support of Polymer Chemistry as he stepped down from his role on the Editorial Board at the end of 2022.

Polymer Chemistry Lectureship

The Polymer Chemistry Lectureship 2022 was awarded to Professor Dominik Konkolewicz (Miami University, USA). This annual award was established in 2015 to honour an early-stage career scientist who has made a significant contribution to the polymer field. The Konkolewicz group explores a range of topics in polymer chemistry, including radical polymerisation mechanisms, dynamically bonded polymer materials, light driven reactions, bioconjugates and polymer based self-assembly. Find out more about Dominik and his research on our Lectureship winner blog post. You can check out articles from Dominik and our previous winners in the Lectureship winners collection.

Did you know that nominations for the Polymer Chemistry Lectureship 2023 are now open? If you know an outstanding early career researcher in polymers, nominate them before the 28 February 2023.

Full details about eligibility and the nominations process can be found here

Polymer Chemistry Emerging Investigators

Polymer Chemistry is proud to spotlight our ongoing Emerging Investigators Series. Our Emerging Investigators are at the early stages of their independent careers and invited for this collection in recognition of their potential to influence future directions in the field. Congratulations to all the featured researchers on their important work so far!

Read the collection

Meet the Scientists

Themed collections

Polymer Chemistry is delighted to have featured some of your best work in our themed collections in 2022.

We promoted themed collections on ‘Molecularly defined polymers: synthesis and function’ Guest Edited by Jeremiah Johnson, Filip Du Prez and Elizabeth Elacqua, ‘Sustainable Polymers’ Guest Edited by Antoine Buchard and Tanja Junkers, ‘Photopolymer science’ dedicated to Prof. Ewa Andrzejewska and ‘Synthetic Methodologies for Complex Macromolecular Structures’ in honour of Prof. Yusuf Yagci’s 70^th birthday

Check out some of these ongoing collections:

‘Tailoring dispersity and shape of molecular weight contributions’ Guest Edited by Athina Anastasaki and Brett Fors
‘Chalcogen-containing polymers’ Guest Edited by Justin Chalker, Rongrong Hu and Jeffrey Pyun
‘Polymer Networks’ with companion journal, Soft Matter, Guest Edited by Matsumoto Akira, Alfred Crosby, Jianping Gong, Akira Kagugo and Yukikazu Takeoka
‘Trends in Thermoresponsive Polymers: from Chemistry to Applications’ Guest Edited by Theoni Georgiou, Richard Hoogenboom and Akihiko Kikuchi

Browse all past collections on our platform and see our upcoming collections on our calls for submissions page. We will be announcing more collections during the year, so keep a look out!

HOT articles

Remember to check out our ongoing Polymer Chemistry HOT articles collection featuring articles highlighted by our Editors and referees. All articles in the collection are FREE to read until 28 February 2023.

Paper of the Month blogs

Our Web Writer and Advisory Board member Dr Kelly Velonia publishes a blog highlighting an interesting publication of her choice each month. She summarises the work and interviews the authors for tips and comments about their work.

Check out the ‘Paper of the Month’ blogs for 2022 here

Open Access

The Royal Society of Chemistry has announced that all 31 fully-owned hybrid journals, including Polymer Chemistry, have been approved as “Transformative Journals” with cOAlition S, an international consortium of research funding and performing organisations. Find out more about our strive towards 100% Open Access here.

#RSCPoster: Save the date

#RSCPoster is a global Twitter Poster Conference, held entirely online over the course of 24 hours. The event brings together the global chemistry community to network with colleagues across the world and at every career stage, share their research and engage in scientific debate.

The 2023 #RSCPoster Twitter Conference will be held from 12:00 (UTC) 28 February 2023 to 12:00 (UTC) 1 March 2023.

How you can help…

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you in addition to our authors, reviewers and readers for their support throughout 2022. Here are some of the ways in which you can continue to make a positive contribution to Polymer Chemistry:

Submit to one of our open themed collections and encourage your colleagues to submit.

If you are organising a conference or virtual event, please do let us know if you would like to arrange mutual promotion between the conference and Polymer Chemistry. We can offer poster prizes, social media and blog promotion, and adverts in the journal and on the journal web page.

Read our recent articles and follow the latest news on the Polymer Chemistry blog and on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Send your best research to Polymer Chemistry.

Thank you for your continued interest in and support of Polymer Chemistry. We look forward to seeing what 2023 brings!

Comments Off on Polymer Chemistry Overview of 2022

Polymer Chemistry Emerging Investigator- Guoming Liu

03 Jan 2023

Guoming Liu received his Ph.D. from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) (2011). Since then, he has been working at ICCAS, where he is currently Professor. From 2016 to 2018, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, as a Newton International Fellow of the Royal Society. His research interests include structure-property relationships of polymers, polymer crystallization and relaxation in confined space, and structure characterization by X-ray and neutron scattering.

Read Guoming’s Emerging Investigator article, ‘Achieving High Elasticity of Trans-1, 4-Polyisoprene with a Combination of Radiation Crosslinking and Thiol-ene Grafting’, DOI: 10.1039/D2PY01218A

Check out our interview with Guoming below:

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

Polymer Chemistry is one of the top journals in polymer science with a focus on polymer synthesis and applications of polymers. It has established high criteria for paper quality and a good reputation among authors and readers. I definitely would like to publish my next research paper in Polymer Chemistry.

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

One of the most important questions is how to develop sustainable polymer materials economically. This may require new monomers from renewable resources, new chemistry for polymerization/depolymerization, and new processing technologies.

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

It is important to establish unique expertise in the field, either by setting up new tools or developing new methods or technologies.

Comments Off on Polymer Chemistry Emerging Investigator- Guoming Liu

Paper of the month: Ring opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone through water

03 Feb 2021

Atta et al. demonstrates a simplified ROP protocol which operates in the absence of any inert gas and without the need of drying any of the reaction’s reagents.

Ring Opening Polymerization (ROP) is arguably one of the most popular methodologies to synthesize biodegradable materials such as polycaprolactone (PCL) and poly (lactic acid) (PLA). However, a major drawback of this approach which severely limits its applicability is that it typically operates under completely moisture-free conditions, as water is well-known to deactivate the catalyst and terminate the propagating chains. To avoid water contamination, highly specialized equipment (e.g., Schlenk lines or glove boxes) as well as anhydrous reagents have to be employed which makes the process particularly tedious for both experts and non-experts. To overcome this, Gormley and co-workers have developed two elegant and simple methods that allow for the facile synthesis of PCL through ROP in a laboratory oven and without using any inert gas or dry reagents. In the first technique, a vacuum oven was employed to evaporate water from a traditional ROP reaction with stannous octoate as the catalyst while in the second approach titanium isopropoxide was utilized to simultaneously quench residual water and catalyze ROP. Impressively, and despite the simplicity of those methodologies, a range of chain lengths could be synthesized (degree of polymerization 25-500) with relatively good control over the molecular weight distributions of PCL (Đ < 1.5 for all cases). It is highlighted that a large excess of water impurities (750 ppm) could be tolerated by both methods yielding well-defined polymers at quantitative conversions. This work represents a great example of a simplified ROP which operates in the absence of complicated reactions set ups and can be performed in any laboratory. As the authors also remark, targeting even higher molecular weights or achieving even lower dispersity values will be the next challenge to address and we very much look forward to the next developments by the Gormley group.

Tips/comments directly from the authors:

The rational goal of this work is to enable the ROP reaction in an oven without inert gas environment and without drying or purifying the reagents.
The most exciting aspect of this work is to enable non-experts to synthesize custom polymers.
TTIP plays multiple roles in this ROP reaction. It not only initiates and catalyzes the polymerization reaction but also eliminates water from the reaction medium.
It is important for the audience that we should perform this experiment with minimal mixing time (within 1-5 sec) as water present in the air can contaminate CL.
The purity of CL can be easily checked by TTIP. A precipitate of TiO₂ was formed when the water content of CL was above 750 ppm, and a cloudy solution was observed.

Citation to the paper: Ring opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone through water, Polym. Chem., 2021,12, 159-164, DOI: 10.1039/D0PY01481H

Link to the paper: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2021/py/d0py01481h

Dr. Athina Anastasaki is an Editorial Board Member and a Web Writer for Polymer Chemistry. Since January 2019, she joined the Materials Department of ETH Zurich as an Assistant Professor to establish her independent research group.

Comments Off on Paper of the month: Ring opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone through water

Paper of the month: Enzyme-responsive polymeric micelles with fluorescence fabricated through aggregation-induced copolymer self-assembly for anticancer drug delivery

08 Jan 2021

Yan et al. develop new enzyme-responsive polymeric micelles with potential applications in cancer therapy.

One of the most exciting and fast-growing topics in polymer chemistry is the synthesis of amphiphilic copolymers that can self-assemble into nanoparticles. Hydrophobic compounds such as cancer drugs can be encapsulated in the core of these self-assembled nanoparticles, thus protecting them from degradation or unwanted interactions with healthy cells. In addition, advances in polymer end-group functionalization allow the conjugation of special ligands on the nanoparticle surface which are responsible for directing the nanoparticles to cancer cells. Upon reaching the tumours (or being taken up by cancer cells), the nanoparticles must release the encapsulated drugs in order to kill the cancer cells. This drug release step requires the use of stimuli-responsive smart polymers that can switch from hydrophobic to hydrophilic upon exposure to stimuli. Temperature, pH, and enzyme-responsive polymers are therefore developed to release drugs on-demand. In this work, Zhao and co-workers further advance the field by synthesizing new fluorescent nanoparticles which can release a cancer drug (doxorubicin) while simultaneously turning off the fluorescent signal when the drug is released. This was achieved by efficiently coupling a tetraphenylethene moiety onto poly(acrylic acid). The hydrophobic property of the tetraphenylethene moiety induces the self-assembly of the resulting diblock copolymers into fluorescent nanoparticles via an aggregation-induced self-assembly mechanism. Upon exposure of the fluorescent nanoparticles to esterase, this enzyme can hydrolyze the ester bond between the tetraphenylethene side chain and the polymer backbone. The enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis reaction turns the hydrophobic block back to the water-soluble poly(acrylic acid) block and therefore, disassembles the nanoparticles and also turns the fluorescent signal off. The diblock copolymer has poly(ethylene glycol) as the corona-forming block which possesses negligible toxicity to healthy cells. Therefore, this new copolymer is very promising for drug delivery applications, especially when monitoring the drug release is essential.

Citation to the paper: Visible light enabled para-fluoro-thiol ligation, Polym. Chem., 2020, 11, 7704-7713, DOI: 10.1039/D0PY01328E

Link to the paper: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2020/py/d0py01328e

Comments Off on Paper of the month: Enzyme-responsive polymeric micelles with fluorescence fabricated through aggregation-induced copolymer self-assembly for anticancer drug delivery

Paper of the month: Direct laser writing of poly(phenylene vinylene) on poly(barrelene)

29 Sep 2020

Bielawski and co-workers report the ROMP of barrelene monomer affording precisely defined fluorescent patterns with micrometer-sized dimensions.

Conjugated polymers have attracted considerable attention owing to their abilities to form films and exhibit high electrical conductivities and as such they have found use in a range of electronic and optical applications. Amongst the various types of polymers, poly(phenylene vinylene) (PPV) is an excellent candidate due to its low optical band gap, large nonlinear optical response, and emissive properties. However, this material is typically intractable and thus challenging to process. To overcome this, Bielawski and co-workers designed a new approach to PPV was through the ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of “barrelene” (bicyclo[2.2.2]octa-2,5,7-triene). The monomer was characterized for the first time by X-ray diffraction analysis of a coordination complex. Barrelene was subsequently homopolymerized and copolymerized with norbornene. The solubility of barrelene homopolymers was found to depend on the cis to trans ratio of alkene in its backbone. Both the homo and copolymers were transformed to PPV by undergoing spontaneous dehydrogenation under air. The materials were analyzed by a range of spectroscopic techniques. Importantly, direct laser writing of the barrelene-containing copolymers was also demonstrated resulting in thermal aromatization within a few seconds affording precisely defined fluorescent patterns with micrometer-sized dimensions. An intrinsic advantage of this development is that the monomer can be potentially incorporated into different macromolecular scaffolds and at varying compositions. Owing to this unique characteristic, the authors envision that their designed strategy would enable the synthesis of a broad range of materials for use in laser machining and contemporary lithography applications.

Tips/comments directly from the authors:

1) The solubility of poly(barrelene) is dependent on the cis-to-trans ratio of the exocyclic olefins in the polymer backbone. Polymers with relatively high cis olefin contents appear to be more soluble than their trans isomers.

2) The resolution of the patterns created by direct laser writing appear to be inversely proportional to the barrelene content of the copolymer used and may be enhanced further by increasing the transparency of the films.

3) Poly(barrelene) oxidizes in air (slow) or upon laser irradiation (fast). A convenient way to monitor the oxidation reaction is through fluorescence spectroscopy. The starting material is non-emissive whereas the poly(phenylene vinylene) product emits a fluorescent green color upon excitation.

4) Because barrelene is strained, copolymerization with other monomers used in ring-opening metathesis polymerization methodologies can be expected which, in turn, may expand the utility of the direct laser writing technique.

Citation to the paper: Direct laser writing of poly(phenylene vinylene) on poly(barrelene), Polym. Chem., 2020, 11, 5437-5443, DOI: 10.1039/d0py00869a

Link to the paper:

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2020/py/d0py00869a

Comments Off on Paper of the month: Direct laser writing of poly(phenylene vinylene) on poly(barrelene)

Paper of the month: Single-chain crosslinked polymers via the transesterification of folded polymers: from efficient synthesis to crystallinity control

01 Sep 2020

Terashima and co-workers report efficient synthetic systems of single-chain crosslinked polymers.

Crosslinked polymers have emerged as a class of unique materials which find use in a diverse range of applications such as drug delivery, dispersants and coating industries. Typically, those materials are made through a combination of controlled polymerization and crosslinked methods. In this work, Terashima and co-workers prepared a range of single-chain crosslinked polymers with controlled crystallization. This was achieved by the intramolecular transesterification of random copolymers compromising of octadecyl methacrylate, 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate, and methyl acrylate. Those copolymers were self-folded in organic media (octane was used as the solvent) through the association of the hydroxyl groups to form reverse micelles. Upon synthesis, the micelles were intramolecularly crosslinked by an efficient transesterification of the methyl acrylate units with the hydroxyl groups to produce polymer nanoparticles with pending octadecyl groups. The materials synthesized were thoroughly characterized by a number of techniques including nuclear magnetic resonance, gel permeation chromatography, small angle X-ray scattering and dynamic light scattering. The developed system allowed for the efficient control of the molecular weight of the crosslinked polymers owing to the precise synthesis of the precursors prepared by living radical polymerization. Importantly, the degree of crosslinking was found to control the crystallinity of the products. Last but not least, a relatively high concentration could be used (up to 50 mg ml^-1). As the authors allude to in their conclusion, their work has paved the way to the production of well-defined polymeric nanoparticles that can be employed for surface coating, painting, optical plastics and cosmetics.

Tips/comments directly from the authors:

1) Intramolecular crosslinking of folded polymers in organic media via transesterification affords the precision and high-throughput synthesis of single-chain crosslinked polymer nanoparticles.

2) The molecular weight of the crosslinked polymers can be controlled as desired at the stage of the synthesis of the precursor polymers by controlled radical polymerization.

3) Transesterification between hydroxyl groups and methyl acrylate units efficiently proceeds within the cores of folded micelles to fix the folded structures in a specific solvent.

4) SEC-MALLS analysis is essential to characterize single-chain crosslinked polymers. Because of the compact structures, the apparent molecular weight of the crosslinked polymers by the general RI detector with PMMA standard calibration turns smaller than that of the non-crosslinked precursor polymers. If the absolute weight-average molecular weight of the crosslinked polymers by the MALLS detector is also close to that of the precursor polymers, you can conclude that the products consist of single chain-crosslinked polymers.

5) Crystallinity of the bulk polymers is controlled by tuning the degree of intramolecular crosslinking. This is an interesting approach to control the thermal and physical properties of solid polymer materials.

Citation to the paper: Single-chain crosslinked polymers via the transesterification of folded polymers: from efficient synthesis to crystallinity control, Polym. Chem., 2020, 11, 5181-5190, doi.org/10.1039/D0PY00758G

Link to the paper: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2020/py/d0py00758g

About the web writer:

Comments Off on Paper of the month: Single-chain crosslinked polymers via the transesterification of folded polymers: from efficient synthesis to crystallinity control

Spotlight on Rongrong Hu: 2018 Polymer Chemistry Emerging Investigator

23 Jan 2020

This week’s issue of Polymer Chemistry is our 2020 Emerging Investigators issue, which contains articles from polymer chemistry researchers in the early stages of their independent careers and is accompanied by an Editorial from Editor-in-Chief Professor Christopher Barner-Kowollik. To celebrate this issue we are delighted to feature the profile of Professor Rongrong Hu, who published in our 2018 Emerging Investigators issue. Below, Rongrong talks about her research journey, from student to Professor, and her feelings towards Polymer Chemistry!

“With my organic synthesis training as an undergraduate student at Peking University where I learned the great diversity of organic reactions, and the research experiences on luminescent polymer materials during my PhD study at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology where I learned the fascinating functionalities that polymers could achieve, I tried to combine organic synthesis and polymer synthesis in my research after I started my career in 2014. We utilize efficient organic reactions for the development of new polymerization methodology and the exploration of new polymer structures and materials. After 5 years of research, I am fully convinced by the huge opportunity that comes with this interdisciplinary study.

Polymer Chemistry, with its topics highly focused on the synthesis, functionalities, and applications of polymers, always provides timely publication and best publishing experiences on exciting progress in the field. It can also sensitively catch new research trend and young polymer chemists. In the 2018 Emerging Investigator issue, we introduced our work about room temperature alkyne and sulfonyl azide-based multicomponent polymerizations, which represent efficient approaches for the convenient construction of polymers with unique structures and functionalities. Encouraged by the broad response of this paper, we further developed several elemental sulfur-based multicomponent polymerizations with practical implication. Most recently, I joined Polymer Chemistry as an Associate Editor, working with the top polymer chemists in the world, to look for most up-to-date innovative and exciting polymer chemistry.”

Read Rongrong’s 2018 Emerging Investigators series paper below!

Room temperature multicomponent polymerizations of alkynes, sulfonyl azides, and N-protected isatins toward oxindole-containing poly(N-acylsulfonamide)s
Liguo Xu, Fan Zhou, Min Liao, Rongrong Hu* and Ben Zhong Tang*
Polym. Chem., 2018,9, 1674-1683

FREE to read and download until the 1^st March 2020.

Biography

Rongrong Hu received her B.S. degree from Peking University and her PhD degree from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. She is currently a Professor of the State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices at South China University of Technology.

She has published over 110 peer-reviewed articles and reviews. Her research interests include (1) the development of alkyne or isocyanide-based multicomponent polymerization methodology through the combination of organic and polymer synthesis, and (2) luminescent polymers with diverse structures and applications. Her current research focuses on the development of multicomponent polymerizations of elemental sulfur and sulfur-containing functional polymers.

Comments Off on Spotlight on Rongrong Hu: 2018 Polymer Chemistry Emerging Investigator

Spotlight on Antoine Buchard: 2018 Polymer Chemistry Emerging Investigator

23 Jan 2020

This week’s issue of Polymer Chemistry is our 2020 Emerging Investigators issue, which contains articles from polymer chemistry researchers in the early stages of their independent careers and is accompanied by an Editorial from Editor-in-Chief Professor Christopher Barner-Kowollik. To celebrate this issue we are delighted to feature the profile of Dr Antoine Buchard, who published in our 2018 Emerging Investigators issue. Below, Antoine talks about his research journey and his feelings towards Polymer Chemistry!

Dr Antoine Buchard & Dr Ulrich Hintermair from The Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies were photogrpahed at a coffee meeting in The Edge for the University of Bath Alumni Relations Impact Report 2018. Shoot ref: 29456 Client: Rachel Skerry – Alumni Relations. Shoot Dates 8th and 9th November 2017

“I started my research career as a student working on new metal complexes for homogeneous catalysis, and only really ventured into polymer chemistry when some of our complexes showed interesting activities in the ring-opening polymerisation of lactide. Since then, I have been really interested in polymer chemistry because it is an incredibly diverse area, which I think offers a lot of creative space for both fundamental and applied work.

Today, using renewable feedstocks to make novel polymers is the underlying theme of my research program. I am particularly interested in using natural sugars as a sustainable, highly diverse and functionalisable resource to build polymers with interesting properties, including potentially less impact on the environment. Our work addresses all aspects of the development of new polymers, from the synthesis of novel monomers, the design of new polymerisation catalysts and processes (including heterogeneous (ref Polym. Chem., 2019,10, 5894-5904)), detailed mechanistic and structure-properties studies, up to the applications of the polymers themselves. Polymer Chemistry is an ideal publication platform for this research, because of the broad scope of the journal, the diversity and expertise of the editorial team, as well as the breadth of article types possible.

Our group have for example recently discovered a method that replaces phosgene with carbon dioxide for the synthesis of cyclic carbonate monomers. We have successfully applied this protocol to various sugar derivatives, including deoxyribose (ref Polym. Chem., 2018,9, 1577-1582) and thymidine (ref Polym. Chem., 2017,8, 1714-1721) and developed promising tuneable, biocompatible and biodegradable polymers, which were also tested as tissue engineering scaffolds for regenerative medicine.

We took the opportunity of the 2018 Emerging Investigator issue to explore slightly different chemistry than usual and investigate the effect of changing some oxygen atoms with sulfur in the backbones of some of our sugar-based polycarbonate (ref Polym. Chem., 2018,9, 1577-1582). To this day it is still unclear! But along the way, we developed some new methodology for use of CS2 in the cyclothio-carbonation of the trans 1,3-diol motif of ribofuranoses, and isolated the first examples of cyclic xanthate monomers derived from natural sugars. Using controlled ring-opening polymerisation, regular poly(xanthate) and alternating poly(trithio-alt-thiocarbonate) species were obtained, and we showed that the sugar backbone influenced greatly the regioselectivity of monomer opening. These polymers formed a new family of degradable sulfur-containing sustainable polymers that attracted some attention from material scientists, and that we are still investigating today and hoping to report on further soon. Featuring in the 2018 Emerging Investigator issue was a great recognition and reward for the work done in my group over the past few years, and has spurred us to keep working in this area.

I am really looking forward to the 2020 Emerging Investigator issue of Polymer Chemistry. I am always curious to discover newcomers in the field and how they envisage the field. With the biennial Pioneering Investigators issue, these issues really set themselves apart from regular issues. I have found that authors usually want to rise to the challenge and report especially exciting results, so it is often a great read!”

Read Antoine’s Polymer Chemistry papers below!

Polymer-supported metal catalysts for the heterogeneous polymerisation of lactones
Ioli C. Howard, Ceri Hammond and Antoine Buchard
Polym. Chem., 2019,10, 5894-5904

Polymers from sugars and CS₂: synthesis and ring-opening polymerisation of sulfur-containing monomers derived from 2-deoxy-D-ribose and D-xylose
Eva M. López-Vidal, Georgina L. Gregory, Gabriele Kociok-Köhn and Antoine Buchard
Polym. Chem., 2018,9, 1577-1582 (Emerging Investigator 2018 Issue)

CO₂-Driven stereochemical inversion of sugars to create thymidine-based polycarbonates by ring-opening polymerisation
Georgina L. Gregory, Elizabeth M. Hierons, Gabriele Kociok-Köhn, Ram I. Sharma and Antoine Buchard
Polym. Chem., 2017,8, 1714-1721

Polymers from sugars and CO₂: ring-opening polymerisation and copolymerisation of cyclic carbonates derived from 2-deoxy-D-ribose
Georgina L. Gregory, Gabriele Kociok-Köhn and Antoine Buchard
Polym. Chem., 2017,8, 2093-2104

Biography

Antoine is a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Reader in Chemistry within the Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technologies (CSCT) at the University of Bath (UK). His research interests include novel chemical transformations and use in catalysis of renewable resources for the synthesis of sustainable polymers and their applications. He is also a member of the UK Catalysis Hub.

Antoine studied at the École Polytechnique in France, obtaining the École Polytechnique’s Diploma and a Master’s degree in chemistry in 2006. He also completed his PhD at the Ecole Polytechnique in 2009, under the supervision of Prof Pascal Le Floch. Antoine was then a Postdoctoral Research Assistant at Imperial College with Prof Charlotte Williams. He worked Air Liquide R&D before returning to academia in 2013, as a Whorrod Research Fellow within the CSCT at the University of Bath.

Comments Off on Spotlight on Antoine Buchard: 2018 Polymer Chemistry Emerging Investigator

Polymer Chemistry Blog

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Emerging Investigator Series – Elizabeth Elacqua

Paper of the Month: Geared photochemistry: an interdependent heterogeneous near-infrared catalytic system using up-conversion glass and g-CN for CuAAC chemistry

Polymer Chemistry Overview of 2022

Polymer Chemistry Emerging Investigator- Guoming Liu

Paper of the month: Ring opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone through water

Paper of the month: Enzyme-responsive polymeric micelles with fluorescence fabricated through aggregation-induced copolymer self-assembly for anticancer drug delivery

Paper of the month: Direct laser writing of poly(phenylene vinylene) on poly(barrelene)

Paper of the month: Single-chain crosslinked polymers via the transesterification of folded polymers: from efficient synthesis to crystallinity control

Spotlight on Rongrong Hu: 2018 Polymer Chemistry Emerging Investigator

Spotlight on Antoine Buchard: 2018 Polymer Chemistry Emerging Investigator

Links

Categories

Archives

Meta