We are very pleased to announce that Professor Rebekka S. Klausen has joined Polymer Chemistry as an Associate Editor

Prof. Rebekka S. Klausen carried out graduate studies in organic synthesis with Prof. Eric N. Jacobsen (Ph.D. 2011, Harvard University) and postdoctoral research in single molecule electronics with Prof. Colin Nuckolls (2011-2013, Columbia University). In 2013, she joined the Johns Hopkins University Department of Chemistry as an Assistant Professor and is now the Second Decade Society Associate Professor. Her research program has been recognized with awards including the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry (2021) and the ACS Macro Letters / Biomacromolecules / Macromolecules Young Investigator Award (2022). Rebekka’s research interests broadly encompass polymer synthesis, with unique contributions in the areas of the development of organometallic polymers of the main group, control of polymer tacticity, and the synthesis of functional materials inaccessible from traditional feedstocks. Read about more of Rebekka’s research on her lab website.

 

She has given her thoughts on future of the polymer chemistry field and the role of Polymer Chemistry:

Postpolymerization functionalization is an area where I see a lot of creative new directions. I’m excited about the potential for exploiting native functionalities in polymers for synthetic diversification. Another growth area is the “transformable monomer” concept, in which a monomer with privileged polymerization reactivity serves as a replacement for a more challenging monomer by way of postpolymerization transformation to another functional group, which allows access to polymers that are hard to make from traditional feedstocks. Postpolymerization functionalization is also going to grow as a central component in enabling sustainable polymers, whether through upcycling of post-consumer plastics or through chemical degradation. By joining the Polymer Chemistry editorial board, I hope to showcase the very best scientific research on these themes.

 

 

Professor Klausen’s favourite recent Polymer Chemistry articles

Professor Klausen has selected some recent publications in Polymer Chemistry that she has found particularly interesting or insightful. These articles are all free to read until 10 November 2023.

Photoinduced SET to access olefin-acrylate copolymers

John B. Garrison , Rhys W. Hughes , James B. Young and Brent S. Sumerlin

Polym. Chem, 2022, 13, 982-988

An electrochemical Hofmann rearrangement on acrylamide copolymers

Muzhao Wang and Paul Wilson.

Polym. Chem., 2023, 14, 3057-3062

Light-accelerated depolymerization catalyzed by Eosin Y

Valentina Bellotti, Kostas Parkatzidis, Hyun Suk Wang, Nethmi De Alwis Watuthanthrige, Matteo Orfano, Angelo Monguzzi, Nghia P. Truong, Roberto Simonutti and Athina Anastasaki

Polym. Chem., 2023, 14, 253-258

 

Read Professor Klausen’s Polymer Chemistry articles

RAFT Polymerization of an Aromatic Organoborane for Block Copolymer Synthesis

Sophia J. Melvin, Braden A. Mediavilla, Em G. Ambrosius, Qifeng Jiang, Fan Fang, Yuyang Ji, Tushita Mukhopadhyaya, Howard E. Katz and Rebekka S. Klausen

Polym. Chem., 2023, Advanced Article

Effect of polycyclosilane microstructure on thermal properties

Qifeng Jiang, Sydnee Wong & Rebekka S. Klausen
Polym. Chem.
, 2021, 12, 4785-4794

Metallocene influence on poly(cyclosilane) structure and properties

Carlton P. Folster & Rebekka S. Klausen
Polym. Chem.
, 2018, 9, 1938-1941

 

All the highlighted articles are currently FREE to read until 10 November 2023!

 

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Emerging Investigator Series – Sankarasekaran Shanmugaraju

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

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Emerging Investigator Series – Leena Nebhani

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.

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2023 Polymer Chemistry Lectureship awarded to Professor Miao Hong

We are delighted to announce Professor Miao Hong (Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences) as the recipient of the 2023 Polymer Chemistry lectureship.

 

This award, now in its ninth year, honours an early-career researcher who has made significant contribution to the polymer field. The recipient is selected by the Polymer Chemistry Editorial Board from a list of candidates nominated by the community.

 

Profile picture of Professor Miao Hong  

 

 ‘What impressed me most about Polymer Chemistry is that the manuscripts are being professionally handled with high efficiency.’

 

 

Miao Hong received her Ph.D. degree in 2013 under the supervision of Professor Yuesheng Li from the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. After a four-year postdoctoral stint at Colorado State University with Professor Eugene Y.-X. Chen, she joined Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2017 as a Full Professor of Chemistry. Research in the Hong group is centred on polymer science, catalytic chemistry, green and sustainable chemistry, and with one of the main interests being the development of novel catalysts and new methodologies for the production of sustainable polymers with controlled structures from renewable feedstocks.

 

To learn more about Professor Hong’s research, have a look at her most recent publication in Polymer ChemistryInsights into the interaction between bis(aryloxide)alkylaluminium and N-heterocyclic carbene: from an abnormal Lewis adduct to a frustrated Lewis pair for efficient polymerizations of biomass-derived acrylic monomers

This is free to access until 30th September 2023, and featured in our most recent Pioneering Investigators collection. You can also check out articles from our previous lectureship winners in our lectureship winners collection.

 

Read our interview with Professor Hong below:

 

How has your research evolved from your first article to you most recent article?

The research in my group is centered on the development of novel catalysts and new methodologies for the production of sustainable polymers with controlled structures from renewable feedstocks. One of major challenges encountered in this area is the conventional catalytic systems, which can effectively polymerize petrochemical monomers, are generally inert/sluggish or uncontrolled toward the polymerization of biomass-derived monomers due to their unique heteroatom-rich structure natures. Take β-angelica lactone as an example, a key downstream chemical of levulinic acid which is available in a total yield of more than 80% from cellulose and classified as one of top biomass-derived compounds best suited to replace petroleum-derived chemicals. However, its polymerization is inaccessible by traditional polymerization methods, such as group transfer, coordination-addition, and radical polymerizations.

 

The first “real” article in my group, accomplished by my first Ph.D. student, is the achievement of the first polymerization of β-angelica lactone through developing a new cooperative Lewis pair catalyst. Accordingly, a heat- and solvent-resistant acrylic bioplastic is effectively synthesized. This work was published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2020, 59, 2664) and designed as a Hot Paper. On the basis of this work, we further optimized the catalyst structure and established a new and stable Frustrated Lewis pair in our very recently work (Polym. Chem. 2023, 14, 3286 – 3293), which is not only efficient for β-angelica lactone polymerization, but also can mediate fast and controlled polymerizations of methyl crotonate and (E,E)-methyl sorbate, thus establishing a general catalyst for the polymerizations of inert biomass-derived acrylic monomers. Overall, the striking findings from our group and the other groups (e.g. Chen, Zhang, Takasu) shed light on the great potential of cooperative Lewis pair catalysts for efficient polymerizations of challenging biomass-derived monomers.

 

What excites you most about your area of research and what has been the most exciting moment of your career so far?

The most exciting moment of my research career so far should be the successful chemical synthesis of high-molecular-weight biomaterial poly(4-hydroxybutyrate) for the first time via ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of γ-butyrolactone (Nat. Chem. 2016, 8, 42), a biomass-derived lactone monomer commonly referred as “non-polymerizable” in the textbooks and literatures due to low ring strain energy, when I was a Postdoc in Prof. Eugene Y.-X. Chen’ group at Colorado State University. However, such ROP requires extremely low reaction temperature, which severely hampers the possibly industrial applicability of the resultant polymer.

 

Recently, my group established a new polymerization strategy, termed isomerization-driven ROP (iROP). Different from conventionally ring strain-driven ROP, such polymerization is thermodynamically driven by S/O isomerization, thus rendering non-strained five-membered rings highly polymerizable for the first time at industrially relevant temperature of 80-100 °C. I am quite excited about iROP, because it is a simple and powerful strategy which not only can circumvent the unfavorable thermodynamics of ROPs of ‘non-stained’ five-membered lactones, and also presents a fascinating opportunity to convert these abundant, but underexploited renewable feedstocks (e.g. γ-butyrolactone, γ-valerolactone, peach lactone, dihydrojasmone lactone, whiskey lactone) into new sustainable polymers with their key physical properties comparing well to representative commodity polyolefin plastics (Nat. Chem. 2022, 14, 294; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, 62, e202217812).

 

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

One of the most important questions in the field of sustainable polymers should be how to reshape the current petroleum-based polymer industry with sustainable polymers.  That is how to bring the beautiful synthetic schemes and intriguing physical properties of sustainable polymers developed in academia into industrial processes and cost-effective polymeric products. To address this question, cross-disciplinary research (such as polymer chemistry, physics, processing, engineering, and even information technology and artificial intelligence) is highly desirable, and the collaboration between both polymer industry and academic researchers is also essential.

 

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

What impressed me most about Polymer Chemistry is that the manuscripts are being professionally handled with high efficiency. Take our recent research article published by Polymer Chemistry as an example. The manuscript was submitted on 17th May 2023, the peer review of which only took two weeks, and accepted fast on13th June 2023.

 

In which upcoming conferences or events (online or in person) may our readers meet you?

The conferences on my schedule are the National Polymer Academic Paper Conference (Oct. 13-17, 2023, Wuhan, China) and IUPAC MACRO 2024 (July 1-4, 2024, Warwick University, United Kingdom).

 

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

You always can find ideas/answers in the literatures when you face the scientific questions.

 

How do you spend your spare time?

Try my best to accompany my family in my spare time. I always feel frustrated to balance work and life.

 

We would like to thank everybody who nominated a candidate for the 2023 Polymer Chemistry Lectureship. The Editorial Board had a very difficult task in choosing a winner from the many excellent and worthy candidates.

 

Please join us in congratulating Professor Hong on winning this award!

 

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Emerging Investigator Series – Maxwell J. Robb

A photo of Max Robb.
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.

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Emerging Investigator Series – Zi-Hao Guo

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.

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Emerging Investigator Series – Takuya Isono

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.

 

 

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Emerging Investigator Series – James Eagan

James M. Eagan is an assistant professor at the University of Akron School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering. His research focuses on improving the performance of recycled polymer blends and in the development of new polymers derived from sustainable feedstocks, such as olefins and carbon dioxide. In the community, he and his group promote sustainable polymer solutions through the Akron Polymer Industry Cluster, and sponsor research experiences for young scientists through the ACS Seed program, and Ohio Department of Education. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2014 under the guidance of Scott A. Snyder and completed postdoctoral studies at Cornell University under Geoffrey W. Coates. He is the recipient of the AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize, NSF Faculty Early Career Development award, and the ACS Petroleum Research Foundation (PRF) New Investigator Grant.

Read James’s Emerging Investigator Paper, Ethylene polymerization using heterogeneous multinuclear nickel catalysts supported by a crosslinked alpha diimine ligand network, DOI: D3PY00118K.

 

Check out our interview with James below:

 

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

We investigate new polymerization catalysts and methods, and the most exciting aspect in this area is the discovery of new materials from old feedstocks.  It is incredible that after more than a century of research into simple monomers like ethylene, propene, and butadiene, novel macromolecules and material properties can still be discovered.  The most challenging part of our research is connecting the performance of new polymers to sustainable applications and ensuring that renewable alternatives meet, or surpass, existing material properties.

 

Find out more about James’s research on the Eagan Lab Group Page.

 

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Paper of the Month: Aqueous seeded RAFT polymerization for the preparation of self-assemblies containing nucleobase analogues

Abad et al. develop formulations of self-assemblies containing nucleobase analogues via seeded RAFT in water.

 

 

Polymer chemists have long exploited the specific hydrogen bonding interactions between nucleobase pairs to control polymer structure or sequence, to template polymerizations or drive self-assembly. Although several approaches have been employed for the synthesis of nucleobase containing polymers, the poor solubility of nucleobase-containing monomers has hampered their polymerization in water.

To address this, Blasco, Piñol and collaborators synthesized a diblock copolymer containing poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and 2,6-diacylaminopyridine (DAP)  polymethacrylate via RAFT. Upon dispersing in water this macro-CTA agent was used for the aqueous seeded RAFT polymerization of 2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate (HPMA). Furthermore, a phase diagram that correlates the degree of polymerization and solid concentration with the morphologies of the resulting self-assemblies was constructed. Through this systematic study, low to high order morphologies (from spherical micelles to worms and to vesicles) could be observed. Interestingly all morphologies proved to be stable for extended periods of time with the exception of worms found to turn into spherical micelles after few weeks. To exploit the ability to functionalize the DAP moieties through H-bonding during aqueous seeded RAFT polymerization, a cross-linker bearing four thymine terminal groups was used. Finally, the higher stability of the assemblies produced via supramolecular cross-linking was studied via encapsulation and subsequent release of the hydrophobic probe Nile Red.

In summary, this study provides a metal-free methodology to produce self-assemblies containing nucleobase analogues in high concentrations via aqueous seeded RAFT polymerization.  The ability to control assembly, functionalize via exploiting supramolecular interactions and load with cargo, enhances their potential use as nanocarriers.

 

Tips/comments directly from the authors:

  • This new strategy integrating non-water soluble groups, such as DAP units, into a BC enabled the preparation of highly concentrated aqueous self-assembly dispersions using the PISA methodology.
  • The DAP units were further exploited for supramolecular H-bonding functionalization with cross-linker containing complementary thymine groups.
  • Previous work on amphiphilic block copolymers having DAP units has proved their potential to prepare stimuli-responsive self-assemblies of interest in nanomedicine by nanoprecipitation or microfluidic. This article takes an important step forward since the potential of the polymers is upgraded with the processing of highly concentrated dispersions by this new straightforward strategy.
  • This paper is the result of a collaborative effort between the groups at University of Zaragoza (Spain) and Heidelberg University (Germany)

 

Citation of the paper: Aqueous seeded RAFT polymerization for the preparation of self-assemblies containing nucleobase analogues, Polym. Chem., 2023,14, 71-80.

Link to the paper: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2023/py/d2py01250b

Link to authors website (or social media)

https://liquidcrystals.unizar.es/  @clip_group_lab (Twitter)

https://www.imseam.uni-heidelberg.de/blasco @EvaBlascoPo (Twitter)

 

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.


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Emerging Investigator Series – Ignazio Roppolo

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.

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