Polymer Chemistry Blog

Junpeng Zhao received his B.S. (2005) and Ph.D. (2010) from University of Science and Technology of China under the supervision of Prof. Guangzhao Zhang. From 2007 to 2009, he undertook a joint Ph.D. appointment, supported by China Scholarship Council, in National Hellenic Research Foundation (Greece) under the supervision of Prof. Stergios Pispas. Afterwards, he was a postdoctoral researcher first at Max-Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (Germany) with Prof. Helmut Schlaad and Prof. Markus Antonietti (2011-2012), and then at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Saudi Arabia) with Prof. Nikos Hadjichristidis (2012-2014). In early 2015, he joined South China University of Technology and began his professorship. His main research interest is synthetic polymer chemistry, with special focus on anionic polymerization, organocatalytic/metal-free polymerization, and synthesis of polymers from renewable resources. He has been the coauthor of 70 peer-reviewed papers and 15 patents, and the (co)supervisor of 25 master/Ph.D. students.   Read Junpeng Zhao’s Emerging Investigator’s article, ‘ Selective ring-opening polymerization of glycidyl esters: a versatile synthetic platform for glycerol-based (co)polyethers’

Read our interview with Junpeng below.

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

Submitting my work to Polymer Chemistry ensures a pleasant reviewing process as well as timely publication.

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

What I am most excited about at the moment is the strict but readily tunable chemoselectivity of two-component organocatalysts which enables precise and convenient synthesis of an increasingly large variety of functional and/or complex polymers. What I have found most challenging is understanding polymerization mechanism, without disproving it soon after.

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

How can we avoid major side effects when trying to make the world a better place using synthetic polymers? What can we learn from nature about designing and tailoring polymer structures and functions?

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

New successes may hide in experiments which seem to have failed at first glance.

Mingjun Huang obtained his B.S. at Peking University in 2010. Then he worked on macromolecular self-assembly with Prof. Stephen Z.D. Cheng at the University of Akron, and obtained his PhD degree in Polymer Chemistry in 2015. After that he moved to MIT and joined the Jeremiah Johnson group as a postdoc, working on battery electrolyte material development. From February 2019, Mingjun started his independent career in South China University of Technology (SCUT). He is currently a professor in South China Advanced Institute for Soft Matter Science and Technology & School of Emergent Soft Matter. He mainly focuses on the novel functional soft matter development within the scope of optics, electric, and energy storage. The main research projects involve: 1) Liquid crystals/liquid crystal polymers with unprecedented structures and properties for applications in optical and electric materials; 2) Self-assembly study of macromolecules with precise chemical structures in condensed states; 3) Design of functional polymer materials for specific needs in display technology and microelectronic industry.   Read Mingjun Huang’s Emerging Investigator’s article ‘ Perfluorocyclobutyl-containing transparent polyimides with low dielectric constant and low dielectric loss‘

Read our interview with Mingjun below.

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

In my mind, Polymer Chemistry is a leading polymer journal for design, synthesis, structure and property study of polymer materials. Particularly for polyimide research, novelty for chemical structure as well as excellent material property is usually required. I feel a great sense of achievement for publication of this topic on this journal.

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

As a polymer chemist, I am most excited about the successful collection of the new polymer samples, after a long journey of monomer design, synthesis and polymerization. I prefer to design monomer structures with simplicity and functionality.

In my research of polyimide materials, the most challenging part is the monomer structure design, i.e. how to balance the polymerization reactivity and targeted functionality in new monomer structure. Obtaining rather high purity of new monomers is also not an easy task for this step polymerization.

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

Polyimides have great potentials for applications in microelectronic industry or flexible display technology. In my opinion, the most important question is how to integrate all the required high performances (e.g. good processibility, high transparency, low dielectric, high glass transition temperature, high thermal degradation stability) in one single material through either chemical structure or composite formulation tuning. A shortage in any important material property would prevent its practical application.

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

I believe in-depth discussions with senior people in similar research area would be very helpful for seeking the entry point or inspiration of new ideas.

Saihu Liao studied chemistry at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and obtained his bachelor degree in 2005. After two years of graduate study with Prof. Yuefa Gong at the same university, he joined Prof. Benjamin List’s group at the Max-Planck-Institute for Coal Research (MPI-KOFO), Germany, where he obtained his doctoral degree in organic chemistry in 2011. Then, he returned to China and joined Prof. Yong Tang’s group as a research associate at the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), Chinese Academy of Sciences. In September 2016, he started his independent career at Fuzhou University, where he was promoted to full professor in 2017. His current research focuses on the development of new organocatalysts and new strategies for polymerization, with a special concern to photo-control and tacticity-regulation.

Read Saihu’s Emerging Investigator article, ‘Organocatalytic Cationic Degenerate Chain Transfer Polymerization of Vinyl Ethers with Excellent Temporal Control’

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

We are interested in the exploration of organocatalysis in polymerization, with a focus on the development of organic photocatalysts and chiral catalysts. As one of the leading journals in polymer chemistry with broad readership, Polymer Chemistry is a wonderful place to publish our research on this topic. We quite appreciate the timely and professional processing of the manuscripts, and also the constructive comments and suggestions from reviewers.

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 moment could be the time we found some new catalysts were surprisingly effective. A challenging thing to us is just to predict the performance of a new catalyst, e.g. its ability in the temporal or tacticity control.      

Shaofeng Liu is a professor at College of Polymer Science and Engineering at Qingdao University of Science and Technology. He received his B.S. in 2005 from Central South University, obtained his Ph.D. in 2011 from Institute of Chemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) and Université de Strasbourg (UDS) under the supervision of Prof. Wen-Hua Sun and Prof. Pierre Braunstein. He then joined the group of Prof. Tobin J. Marks at Northwestern University as a postdoctoral fellow (2011-2014). In 2015, he moved to Qingdao University of Science and Technology and started his independent research career. His current research interests include organometallic catalysts for olefin polymerization and organocatalysts for sustainable polymers by ring-opening polymerization. 

Read Shaofeng’s Emerging Investigator article, ‘Chromium complexes supported by NNO-tridentate ligands: an unprecedented activity with the requirement of a small amount of MAO’

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

Polymer Chemistry is a leading journal and a preferred platform to publish important research in the field of polymer science.

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

Our research interests include the development of organometallic catalysts for polyolefins by coordination polymerization and organocatalysts for sustainable polymers by ring-opening polymerization. Therefore, from the view of both catalytic systems (metal-based or metal-free catalysis) and resultant polymer materials (traditional and nondegradable polyolefin or degradable and recyclable polyester/polycarbonate), there seem to exit conflict of interests, which actually become our most excited aspects. For our current research, the most challenging work is designing simple catalysts to synthesize sophisticated polymers with superior performances.  

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

The activity and selectivity are the most considered aspects for various polymerization reactions. In my opinion, how to balance these two aspects would be the most important question in the field of polymer synthesis.