Polymer Chemistry Blog

Nicolay V. (Nick) Tsarevsky obtained his M.S. in theoretical chemistry and chemical physics from the University of Sofia, Bulgaria (1999) and Ph.D. in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA (2005), where he worked in Prof. Kris Matyjaszewski’s labs. His work was related to the synthesis of functional polymers by atom transfer radical polymerization and the development of rules for rational selection of the catalyst for various reaction media, including aqueous solvents. He has authored and coauthored more than 65 peer-reviewed journal papers or book chapters, a textbook for high school students, and several patents. He was awarded several national awards, including the Kenneth G. Hancock Memorial Award in Green Chemistry (2003) and the National Starch & Chemical Award (2008). Nick was Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University (2005-6), Associate Director of the CRP Consortium (2006), and a member of the founding team of ATRP Solutions, Inc., of which he served as Chief Science Officer (2007-10). He was secretary (2005) and chair (2006) of the Polymer Group of the Pittsburgh Section of ACS, as well as chair of the Section (2009). He joined the Department of Chemistry at Southern Methodist University in the summer of 2010. Current research interests include polymerization techniques, functional materials, coordination chemistry and catalysis, and the chemistry of hypervalent compounds.

Please follow the link for further information on Nick’s research group and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

The secrets of nature fascinated me since my early childhood. When I was about 10 or so, I started spending my summer vacation at our house in the outskirts of Vitosha mountain near Sofia. In that area, pretty rustic at the time, I started collecting various minerals, insects, and medicinal plants. I thought I would become a biologist and I was reading a lot of books and textbooks on biology. When I was in 5^th grade, my parents and I visited friends who were teachers. I asked if they could find for me the 8^th grade biology textbook, which was the only one missing in my collection, but for some reason I was given the textbooks on both biology and chemistry. I started browsing and reading them and by the time we had to leave for home several days later, I had fallen in love with the newly-discovered science of chemistry to such an extent that I took with me the chemistry textbook but left behind the biology book. I quickly decided to have my own home lab, and very soon, with the help of my parents’ colleagues and friends, I had a pretty decent collection of glassware and chemicals. That is when my love for chemistry started and nothing has been able to extinguish it since then. My high school teacher at the National School of Mathematics and Science, Mrs. Tanya Apostolova, helped me start some research at the University of Sofia when I was in 9^th grade. I entered the University of Sofia to study chemical physics and theoretical chemistry, but during my last year there, one of my professors, Dr. George S. Georgiev, introduced me to polymer science and the exciting world of macromolecular materials. He recruited me to his lab to do research, which was the basis of my M.Sc. thesis. My studies continued in Kris Matyjaszewski’s lab at Carnegie Mellon University, where I learned a great deal and became more convinced than ever that precise measurements, determination of exact numbers, and understanding of reaction mechanisms and kinetics are crucially important to rationally select the optimal reaction conditions needed to make materials. In other words, I have been faithful to chemistry since 5^th grade and never did or never will abandon it.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/c1py00495f)

Controlling molecular characteristics, such as molecular weight, architecture or placement of functional groups is one of the most important goals in synthetic polymer chemistry. However, sometimes the synthesis of specific macromolecules can be rather complicated and time consuming. We were trying to find an easy, and preferably relatively inexpensive, strategy to synthesize branched macromolecules without the need to employ pre-made inimers, which are often synthesized via multi-step procedures. We decided to explore the possibility to exchange “ligands” attached to hypervalent iodine centres with the polymerizable methacryloyloxy groups, yielding inimers in situ. The exchange turned out to be efficient and the homolytic cleavage of the newly formed iodine-oxygen bonds gave rise to branched or transiently crosslinked macromolecules. We were inspired by earlier work on ligand exchange reactions at hypervalent iodine atoms and also by work demonstrating that hypervalent iodine compounds can participate in a number of radical reactions, including initiation of radical polymerization.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Polymer Chemistry is a very exciting new journal, in which high quality and high impact work is published on mechanistic studies of polymerization or polymer modification, synthesis of materials, characterization, applications, etc. All major aspects of polymer chemistry are thus covered in the journal and it is only natural that polymer chemists would want their work to be published there.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I will be attending the Spring ACS National Meeting in San Diego at the end of March 2012, where I will be giving a talk at a symposium honouring Kris Matyjaszewski. I also look forward to attending the Warwick Polymer Conference in July.

How do you spend your spare time?

In addition to chemistry, I love history and art, and I spend a lot of my time reading history books, mostly original sources, visiting museums, listening to opera recordings or going to the theatre or the opera house. I have been known to travel quite a distance to attend a performance of interest. I am happy I was given the chance to develop a course on “Chemistry and Technology in Art”, which I will offer in the spring semester of 2012. It will give me the opportunity to teach about all my three favourite subjects – chemistry, history, and art. This is still work in progress and I currently dedicate a significant fraction of my spare time to it.

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

I am passionate about the theatre and if I were not a chemist or a scientist, I would have enjoyed being a playwright or possibly an actor, provided I had the necessary talent. In fact, several years ago, I wrote two scripts for educational programs for children, which got to be on national TV in Bulgaria. That was an extremely rewarding and pleasant experience. The scripts were not exactly “plays” (although they were somewhat close) but the fact that I enjoyed writing them so much made me realize that I would actually be very happy if I could be a playwright.

A. Levent Demirel received his B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering & Physics from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, in 1989, and Ph.D. degree in Physics from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA in 1996. He was postdoctoral researcher at FOM Institute AMOLF in Amsterdam in 1996-1997. He joined Koç University Chemistry Department as faculty member in 1997 where he was promoted to full professor in 2008. Currently, he is the Associate Dean of College of Sciences. He has received TÜBİTAK (Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Council) Young Scientist Award in 1999, TÜBA (Turkish Academy of Sciences) Young Scientist Award in 2001 and Koç University Werner von Siemens Excellence Award in 2003. In 2006, he has been elected as associate member of Turkish Academy of Sciences. His current research interests are in the field of surface and polymer physical chemistry.

Please follow the link for further information on Levent’s research group and his recent paper published in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

Though my current research is in the field of physical chemistry, I am a physicist by training. I will be happy as long as I stay in science as a major, whether it is physics or chemistry. I was fond of numbers, calculations and equations as a kid. My aunt was a primary school teacher at a village. When I was about 5 years old, I attended her classes for a while where I met numbers and calculations first time. Then at the high school I had very inspiring physics, chemistry and math teachers. I started as an electrical engineering undergraduate, but my desire to understand single transistor dominated over analyzing complex electronic circuits and I went for PhD in Physics at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. I later switched to soft matter physics, by chance, and worked under the supervision of Prof. Steve Granick on viscoelasticity of molecularly thin liquid films. Then at postdoc, I worked on thin films of liquid crystals and block copolymers. There is a lot overlapping in physics and chemistry when you work on soft matter and I naturally moved into the field of physical chemistry after starting as a faculty member at Koç University Chemistry Department.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/C1PY00463H)

The question we are after is quite fundamental and practical: Why are initially clear homogeneous polymer solutions not stable in time and agglomerates formed? Chemists do not like it when chemicals can not be dissolved in a solvent for further analysis or processing, but frequently encounter it in the lab especially with macromolecules. The change in temperature, pH may trigger such irreversible agglomeration among other reasons. Poly(2-isopropyl-2-oxazoline) was known to form irreversible crystalline fibers when kept above cloud point temperature for extended times. We expected the same for poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) (PEOX) as similar interactions are in charge, but could not observe any structure formation for a long time. My PhD student Pınar Tatar Güner was patient enough to wait long (several weeks) to observe that crystalline PEOX fibers are also formed. Then, we controlled this self-assembly process by electrolytes and characterized these fibers structurally.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

As much as I can, I regularly check the contents of every new issue of the major journals in my field. Since its first issue in 2010, I found many high quality papers, very relevant to my research interests in every issue of Polymer Chemistry. It already had high impact on my research and I decided to send it to Polymer Chemistry.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I plan to attend to ACS Spring Meeting in San Diego, USA, in March 2012 where there will be a session on poly(2-oxazoline)s.

How do you spend your spare times?

My wife and I like travelling and spending time in nature.

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

I would choose a profession where I can spend more time out in the field – being a farmer, an archeologist, a field biologist, a geologist.

Masami Kamigaito was born in 1965 in Nagoya, Japan. He received his B.S. (1988), M.S. (1990), and Ph.D. (1993) in polymer chemistry from Kyoto University under the direction of Professor Toshinobu Higashimura. After conducting postdoctoral research with Professor Mitsuo Sawamoto, he joined the faculty of Kyoto University in 1995, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1999. In 2003, he moved to Nagoya University and worked as an Associate Professor with Professor Yoshio Okamoto. In 2004, he was promoted to Professor. From 1997–1998, he worked as a visiting scientist at Stanford University with Professor Robert M. Waymouth. He was the recipient of the 2001 Arthur K. Doolittle Award of the ACS PMSE Division, the 2009 Wiley Polymer Science Award of the Society of Polymer Science, Japan, and the 2010 Japan IBM Science Award (Chemistry). His research interests include controlled radical and cationic polymerizations, the development and application of new polymerizations to precision polymer synthesis, and controlled polymerizations of renewable vinyl monomers.

Please follow the link for further information on Masami’s research group and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

My family. I have always been interested in the natural sciences. My father studied Physics at the University, as did my elder brother. My preference for Chemistry in high school and my desire to choose a different field from that of my father and brother led me to study Chemistry at the University.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/C1PY00401H)

Our group has worked on controlling the molecular weight, stereochemistry, and monomer sequence in radical polymerization by designing polymerization systems, including monomers, initiators, catalysts, and additives. Since I collaborated with Professor Yoshio Okamoto and learned stereospecific radical polymerization, we began researching the simultaneous control of molecular weight and tacticity and its application for the synthesis of novel types of controlled polymers. The RAFT copolymerization of bulky methacrylate and methacrylic acid, which have different reactivities and stereoselectivities, permitted the synthesis of stereogradient polymers, in which the tacticity can be varied from syndiotacticity to isotacticity.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

This paper was submitted to a themed issue of New Methods of Polymer Synthesis, which was guest-edited by Professors Christopher Barner-Kowollik, Jean-François Lutz, and Sebastien Perrier, in which many readers working in this field have a strong interest. In addition, Polymer Chemistry is becoming one of the most attractive journals in polymer chemistry, as evidenced by the quality of the papers published therein.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

Most certainly, I will be attending the 9th Society of Polymer Science Japan International Conference (IPC2012) at Kobe in Japan from 11/12/2012 to 14/12/2012, which will be announced at http://www.spsj.or.jp/english-index.htm, because I am a member of the Program Committee.

How do you spend your spare times?

I play with my three (9, 7, and 3 years old) children.

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

Archeologist. It is another profession I wanted to choose, because I had experiences in finding flint implements when I was a child.