Polymer Chemistry Blog

Prof. Chao Gao received a B.S. in 1995 and a M.S. in organic chemical engineering in 1998 from Hunan University, and a Ph.D. in polymer chemistry and physics under the supervision of Prof. Deyue Yan in 2001 from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). Then he became a faculty member in SJTU and was promoted as an associate professor in 2002. Since Nov. 2003, he worked with Prof. Sir Harry Kroto as a visiting scholar and post-doc research fellow in the University of Sussex, UK. Afterwards he moved to Prof. Axel H. E. Müller’s group at Bayreuth University, Germany in July 2005 as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow. In 2008, he joined the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University and was promoted as a full professor. His research interests include hyperbranched and other dendritic polymers, chemistry of graphene and carbon nanotubes, controlled/living polymerization and click chemistry. He co-edited (with Prof. Deyue Yan and Prof. Holger Frey) a book, Hyperbranched Polymers: Synthesis, Properties, and Applications (published by John, Wiley & Sons), and published more than 90 papers with citation of more than 3500 times. His research result of graphene fiber knot has been selected by Nature as “Images of the Year” in 2011. He is the advisory editorial member of Colloid and Polymer Science.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

To become a scientist is my childhood dreams, with the encouraging stories of those big masters such as Albert Einstein, Marie Curie and Alfred Nobel. When I went to high school, chemistry is my most favorite and best subject, under the special guidance and inspiration of the chemistry teacher, Mr. Changliang Zheng. Therefore I chose chemistry as my major in the university. My potential in scientific research was found when I became a Ph.D. student of Prof. Deyue Yan and I got the Award of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of China. After graduation, I was happy to become a faculty member in the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

Hyperbranched polymers are a very interesting topic to be addressed due to their three-dimensional topology and unique properties. Their multifunctional groups can be used as a versatile platform to make promising materials. However, the functional groups of conventional hyperbranched polymers (CHPs) are too compact to be modified completely (generally 60-70% conversion of functional groups) due to the closely branched units. So we designed and synthesized segmented hyperbranched polymers (SHPs) with sparsely branched units. We found that the functional groups of SHPs can be modified completely (~100% conversion) despite the density of functional groups is extremely high (1-3 groups per unit). Moreover, the heterofunctional groups can be readily and orthogonally functionalized with different blocks, paving an avenue toward multifunctional smart materials.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work? (DOI:10.1039/C2PY20951A)

I like polymer chemistry, especially the synthesis of new polymers with novel architecture even though they seem useless in industry at this moment. I think Polym. Chem. is an ideal platform for showing such structures and unique properties.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I will attend the 10^th IUPAC International Conference on Advanced Polymers via Macromolecular Engineering, August 18^th – 22^nd 2013, Durham University and the China Polymer Conference in October 12-16^th, Shanghai.

How do you spend your spare times?

I like to spend my spare time with my family. Besides, I enjoy sports, especially playing tennis and watching tennis grand slam.

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

Maybe I would be a journalist or TV presenter.

Prof. Junpo He graduated with a B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from Henan University in 1990, received his M.S. degree in 1993, and Ph. D. in 1999, both on Polymer Chemistry and Physics in Fudan University. Since 1993, he was an assistant teacher (1993-1997), lecturer (1997-2003), associate professor (2003-2007) and full professor (since 2007) in Fudan University. He worked as an exchanging scholar in University Konstanz (1996-1997), PostDoc in BASF, Ludwigshafen (2002-2003), DAAD visiting scientist in University Konstanz (2005), Germany, and JSPS Fellow in TITech, Japan (2012). His research interests are on living polymerization and polymer synthesis. He is editorial member of European Polymer Journal.

Research website: http://www.polymer.fudan.edu.cn/polymer/research/hjp/index.asp

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

I was actually not keen on chemistry when I was a middle school student, because I had to remember various kinds of reactions for exam. In the university and graduate school, however, I became fascinated by chemistry for its great diversity and variety in molecular structure and property, which satisfied my curiosity all the time.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

For a long time I have been thinking about method to speed-up the synthesis of dendrimers. I believe anionic polymerization, a true living polymerization technique, can accomplish this purpose. We have developed two methods to simplify the synthesis of dendrimers. One is a living branching polymerization by which dendrimers are prepared in a continuous process, and the other is the current work, the “end-grafting” method, in which dendrimers are synthesized using only one diblock copolymer as the building block.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work? (DOI:10.1039/C2PY20742G)

These years the polymer community of the world has witnessed the high-profile emerging of Polymer Chemistry as a new and one of the central journals in polymer science. I appreciate very much the high impact of the journal on polymer research all over the world.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I will attend “The 10th IUPAC International Conference on Advanced Polymers via Macromolecular Engineering (APME 2013)”, Durham University in the UK (August 18-22, 2013); and “The 21st International Symposium on Ionic Polymerization (IP2013)”, Awaji Island, Hyogo, Japan (September 23-28, 2013).

How do you spend your spare times?

I like to travel to different places and know different cultures and try different foods. If possible, I’d like to travel with my wife and son.

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

I may choose cook or farmer as my second profession. Cooking, either in kitchen or in lab, make my happy. I also find a sense of great harmony in my mind when I stand in a field full of plants under a blue sky.

Cyrille Boyer is a guest web-writer for Polymer Chemistry. He is currently a Senior Lecturer and an ARC-Future Fellow at the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine (School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales (Australia)).