Polymer Chemistry Blog

Dr. Mihaela C. Stefan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at University of Texas at Dallas. She received a BS in Chemical Engineering, and MS and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry from Politehnica University Bucharest, Romania. She worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Krzysztof Matyjaszewski’s and Richard McCullough’s research groups at Carnegie Mellon University. She joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Texas at Dallas in August 2007.  Since 2007 she has attracted 9 graduate students, 31 undergraduate students, and 3 summer high school student into her research lab.  Currently, 6 graduate students and 6 undergraduate students are working in her lab. She has published more than 40 peer-reviewed papers out of which 19 were published after joining UTD.

She received the NS&M Outstanding Teacher Award in 2009 and the Inclusive Teaching Diversity Award in 2012.  She is aslo a recipient of the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from NSF, which is given to junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research. Her research group is developing novel polymeric materials for organic electronics and for drug delivery applications.  The common theme on both research directions is the interdisciplinary training of students at the interface between organic/polymer chemistry and materials science.

For more information see here: http://www.utdallas.edu/~mci071000/

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

My parents were chemists and I started to visit their labs when I was only 5-6 years old. At the initial stage I was fascinated with the colors in the lab as my mom used to show me titrations. Sometimes my mom would take me to work on Saturdays because she could not take me to the kindergarten on weekends. Going to work with my mom was so much better than going to kindergarten. When I had to decide for college I choose to study chemical engineering because traditionally back in my home country when you study chemistry you prepare for a teaching career. At that time teaching was something I would have not considered as a career choice.  Now teaching is such an important part of my work and I can never imagine my life without going in the classroom to teach.

What was the motivation to write this review? (DOI: 10.1039/C1PY00453K)

I wrote the review as an invited paper for the themed issue on New Methods of Polymer Synthesis. The review describes the synthesis of block copolymers of polythiophene by Grignard metathesis (GRIM) polymerization.  My group works on the development of novel semiconducting polymers for organic electronics applications. Whenever possible we use Grignard metathesis method because it is a living polymerization which allows the control of the molecular weights and functional end groups of the semiconducting polymers.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Polymer Chemistry is one of the leading journals in polymer science. This is my second paper to be published in Polymer Chemistry and both times I enjoyed the fast time to publication and the fair review process.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I will attend the International Conference on Science and Technology of Synthetic Metals ICSM 2012 which will be held on July 8-13 in Atlanta. I will also give an invited talk to the “Young Academic Investigators” Symposia organized by the Organic Division of ACS at the Fall 2012 ACS Meeting in Philadelphia.

How do you spend your spare times?

I do not have much spare time because we are trying to work hard to build a successful research group. However, when I have time to take a break from my work I like to read biographies. I love reading biographies of scientists and I always look to buy books. I also enjoy playing with my cats. In the future I hope to find some spare time to volunteer for a shelter as I love animals, especially cats.

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

I would probably have pursued a career as a cat veterinarian if I was not a scientist.

Christophe Boisson studied chemistry at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Montpellier (France). He received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Paris-Sud 11 in 1996 for investigations of the chemistry of f-metal amide complexes. The same year, he became research associate at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and he joined the group of Dr Roger Spitz at CPE-Lyon where he developed research in the field of copolymerization of ethylene with butadiene. In 2008, he was appointed CNRS research director at the laboratory Chemistry, Catalysis, Polymers and Processes (UMR 5265 – CNRS, CPE Lyon, University Lyon 1). His research interests are focused on homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts for the polymerization of olefins.

Details of his research activities can be found at: http://c2p2-cpe.com/index.php

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

When I was a young student, chemistry was the scientific disciplines I succeeded best. This was at first a good reason to start learning chemistry but very rapidly I was fascinating by the arrangement of atoms to make molecules and the infinite possibilities of structure creation offered by chemistry.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper (DOI: 10.1039/C2PY20063E)?

Synthetic rubbers in the tyre industry are principally based on homo- and co-polymers of butadiene. Our group has a long standing interest in the polymerization of butadiene. We have developed neodymium catalysts for stereospecific polymerization of butadiene but especially for the design of new elastomers named EBR (ethylene-butadiene rubber) bearing unique microstructures. More recently, we focused on nickel catalysts for butadiene polymerization since these complexes are less sensitive to functional groups than neodymium systems and provide opportunities to prepare new materials. In the present paper, an investigation of the activation of nickel(0) and nickel(II) precursors using a range of activators is reported and several new efficient catalysts are described. These investigations permit us to rationalize the formation of the actives species in the case of the industrial catalysts Ni(O₂CR)₂/BF₃.OEt₂/AlEt₃.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

In the editorial of the first issue of this young journal, Prof. David Haddleton wished that “the next generation of polymer chemists see Polymer Chemistry as their own journal representing what they need from their top journal”. I think it is the case and it is a very good reason to publish my works in this journal.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

4^th International Conference on Polyolefin Characterization (Houston – October 21-24, 2012)

International Conference on the Reaction Engineering of Polyolefins (Ferrara, Italy, June 17-20 2013 internet site :  www.incorep.org)

How do you spend your spare time?

I think it is very important to save time for family in spite of our very exiting but also time consuming research work. Playing with my children, cooking and running are my favourite spare time hobbies.

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

My father was a chef, I will certainly enjoy creating my own dishes which I could taste contrary to chemicals.

Takuya Yamamoto received his PhD in 2004 from the University of Utah where he worked with Prof. Peter J. Stang.  He joined JST ERATO Aida Nanospace Project as a researcher in 2005.  Since 2008, he has been an assistant professor of the Department of Organic and Polymeric Materials, Tokyo Institute of Technology.  He received the Tokyo Tech Young Investigator Engineering Award from Tokyo Institute of technology in 2010, Award for Encouragement of Research in Polymer Science from the Society of Polymer Science, Japan in 2011, and Challenging Research President’s Honorary Award from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2011.  His current research interests include the synthesis and self-assembly of cyclic polymers for the development of functional materials.

For more information, see: http://www.op.titech.ac.jp/lab/tezuka/ytsite/Japanese/Members/yamamoto.html and http://www.op.titech.ac.jp/lab/tezuka/ytsite/English/Members/yamamoto.html

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

Many of my relatives are related to scientific professions, and some of them are in chemistry.  Since I was small, I have had opportunity to be exposed to the state-of-the-art technology of the field, which inspired me to pursue my career in chemistry.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/C1PY00475A)

Cyclic polymers are gaining growing interest due to the distinctiveness from linear and branched counterparts by the absence of chain ends, and their unique properties often rely on the particular topology.  Furthermore, cyclic block copolymers constructed by the combination of incompatible segments may provide novel properties and functions upon self-assembly giving rise to the amplification of “topology effects”.  We previously reported that a micelle formed from a poly(butyl acrylate)-b-poly(ethylene oxide) cyclic amphiphile exhibits significantly enhanced thermal stability in comparison with one from a linear counterpart (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 10251).  This finding is regarded as the first example of an amplified topology effect by a synthetic cyclic polymer upon self-assembly.

To promote further studies on the subject, the development of synthetic process for amphiphilic cyclic polymers is inevitable to provide a variety of cyclic block copolymers having the programmed combination of segment components with narrow PDIs.  In particular, amphiphilic block copolymers with polystyrene segments are of an importance due to their universality and extensive studies on self-assembled structures from linear polystyrene-b-poly(ethylene oxide).  Hence, we expected that relevant cyclic polystyrene-b-poly(ethylene oxide) counterparts could provide unique opportunities to reveal novel topology effects upon self-assembly.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

We were invited to write a review in Polymer Chemistry (“Topological polymer chemistry: a cyclic approach toward novel polymer properties and functions”, Polym. Chem. 2011, 2, 1930), which was selected as one of the top ten most-read articles twice.  To publicize more of our research from the journal, we submitted the original paper.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I will attend the 61st SPSJ Annual Meeting (May 29-31 in Yokohama, Japan), Warwick 2012 (July 9-12 in Warwick, UK), and the 61st Symposium on Macromolecules, SPSJ (Sept. 19-21 in Nagoya, Japan).

How do you spend your spare times?

I jog on weekends and sometimes hang out with my friends.

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

I haven’t thought much about it.  Probably, an ordinary corporate employee.

Julian Zhu, professor of chemistry at Université de Montréal, obtained his B.Sc. from Nankai University in China and his Ph.D. from McGill University in Canada in 1988.  Having worked as a postdoctoral researcher in France and in Toronto, he started his academic career at Université de Montréal, where he is now a holder of the Canada Research Chair on Polymeric Biomaterials. 

His research interests are in the synthesis and characterization of new polymeric materials that can be used for biomedical and industrial applications.  Examples include new hydrogels for soft tissue replacement, biodegradable polymers for drug delivery systems, dental filling resins and polymeric support materials in combinatorial synthesis in drug discovery. Various advanced nuclear magnetic resonance techniques including NMR imaging have been used in the characterization of polymers, especially in the study of diffusion of small and macromolecules in polymeric systems. He and his co-workers have also proposed a new physical model of diffusion which has been used successfully in the interpretation of the diffusion phenomenon in polymer gels. He and his research group have made many contributions in soft materials sciences and polymer chemistry. He has co-authored more than 180 research articles published in scientific journals.  He has been invited to give lectures on his research work in international conferences as well as in many research institutions.  He has been awarded the Alexander von Humboldt fellowship as well as the AstraZeneca Research Award by the Canadian Society for Chemistry. His collaborations with other colleagues in Canada and other countries have been fruitful. Many researchers and students from other countries (including France, Germany, Spain, Romania, Czech Republic, China, India, Chili, Mexico, just to name a few) have made their research stays in his lab.  This further enhanced the research capacity and progress of his group.

The inherently interdisciplinary nature of the research work in Zhu’s group creates many natural links with other established areas of strength at the Université de Montréal, the École Polytechnique, McGill University and several research institutes and hospital research centers in the area. As a result, research in this area will gain increasing international visibility for Université de Montréal in ways that can strengthen its traditional areas of excellence and make it likely that new fields are developed.

He presently directs a group of 11 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.  His group offers a multidisciplinary environment for the training of young researchers in the development of integrated skills in synthesis, structural analysis, and physical characterization.  Students trained in this environment will help provide Canada with the skilled personnel it needs to remain competitive in materials science. For more information, see here: www.mapageweb.umontreal.ca/zhuj.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

Chemistry offers solutions to the problems encountered to have sustainable economic and technological developments: such as energy shortage, environmental protection, resources, etc. A polymer chemist can help to solve many of these problems. I often tell the students: The public often has the false impression that chemistry caused many problems related to our environment; we need to re-affirm to the public that we chemists are part of the solution to the problems. With new and better chemistry, we can address such problems.

(The real answer: I actually wanted to be a mathematician, but I had a very good score in chemistry for my entrance exam held in China that year and I was assigned to a chemistry department. It happened that Nankai University had a very good chemistry department and I loved chemistry ever since and became a polymer chemist.)

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper?
(DOI: 10.1039/C2PY20168B)

We wanted to use natural compounds to prepare new materials to improve the biocompatibility and bioacceptance of polymers to be used in biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. Bile acids are natural compounds that are stored in our gallbladder in large quantities and help in the digestion of lipids in our body (and also in most animals). We use bile acids and other biomolecules to make new polymeric materials, study their properties and explore their potential use.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Polymer Chemistry is a new journal with a good visibility in our field. We have published several papers in this journal including an invited review paper.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I attend ACS meetings regularly and will attend the annual meeting of the Canadian Society for Chemistry to be held in Calgary in May this year. I was also invited to attend the International Symposium on Polymer Chemistry to be held in Changchun, China in June.

How do you spend your spare times?

I love gardening, and I grow all kinds of vegetables. I bring the over-supplies to my friends, neighbors and students. The only problem for me is that the summer is a bit too short in Canada.

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

I have not given much thought about an alternative profession in life. I always liked to teach and to do research. I may want to be a lawyer, not for the money, but for the sake of a good argument. I may also want to be a linguist or a translator; all the different languages in the world fascinate me.