Polymers are very useful materials in our daily life. Polymers are made by chemically connecting the building blocks into very large structures similar to a child using Legos to construct and create a building. This research project focuses on developing reactions that connect the polymer building blocks in a highly efficient manner. under mild reaction conditions. Another important goal of this project is to increase the participation of women, underrepresented minorities, K-12 students, and undergraduates in educational programs across the San Diego community. This project involves elementary school students through a click chemistry lecture / demonstration at the Elementary Institute of Science. It also involves local high school students through the High School Research Education Program. Additionally, the project provides opportunities for community college students to work on the development of click chemistry through a new curriculum designed for the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) Program at The Scripps Research Institute.
SuFEx chemistry is a useful click reaction recently developed to construct structurally-diversified materials with desired properties. Sulfonyl/sulfuryl fluorides possess a combination of synthetic accessibility, stability, and responsiveness to the presentation of proton or silyl activators - molecular cofactors that enhance reactivity in subtle, yet powerful, ways. The goal of this project is to explore the feasibility of using SuFEx click chemistry to fabricate polymeric and dendritic materials with diverse chemical structures. There are three objectives in this project. The first objective is to search for better catalysts to promote SuFEx-based transformations requiring lower catalyst loading and milder reaction conditions. The second objective is to synthesize and functionalize polymeric materials using SuFEx click chemistry developed under the first objective. The third objective is to prepare dendritic materials based on SuFEx click chemistry. Through these studies, this research seeks to understand the strengths and limitations of SuFEx in the construction of macromolecular, supramolecular and nanoscopic materials, and to establish modular reactions to build these molecules.
