Polymers are ubiquitous and serve as important and versatile materials in a myriad of societal sectors, and their properties are dictated by the polymer structures. In this project funded by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, Prof. Yan Xia of Stanford University develops new synthetic strategies to collectively address the challenges in controlling polymer structure, functionality and degradability. Fundamental studies and method development of this project aim to enable the synthesis of highly functionalized and precisely structured polymers with tailored properties. This project provides valuable training experiences for undergraduate and graduate students to continue to advance our ability to synthesize complex macromolecular structures. This program integrates educational endeavors at several levels to 1) use after-school educational activities and social media to facilitate recruitment and retention of high school students, especially underrepresented students in the Bay Area; 2) enhance the public awareness of soft materials, both commodity and high-end plastics, enabled by new chemistry and engineering; 3) interface organic chemistry with materials science in undergraduate and graduate education to cultivate interdisciplinary researchers.
The goal of this research is to provide new insights of metathesis chemistry, new patterns of monomer reactivity, and new synthetic strategies to prepare well-defined polymers and materials with tailored properties. This project develops living alternating ring-opening metathesis polymerization (AROMP) and thermodynamically driven single monomer additions to control polymer backbone and side chain functionalities, microstructures, and monomer sequences. The approach to tune materials properties and assembly behaviors of the resulting polymers is by controlling the structural regularity.It also integrates broader educational endeavors to: 1) facilitate recruitment and retention of underrepresented students in the Bay Area in science majors through local visits and social media; 2) enhance the public awareness of both commodity and high-end plastics enabled by new chemistry; and 3) interface organic chemistry with polymer science in Stanford undergraduate courses to cultivate future interdisciplinary researchers.
