In this CAREER project funded by the Chemical Structure, Dynamics & Mechanisms B Program of the Chemistry Division and the Polymers Program of the Division of Materials Research, Professor Alexis Ostrowski from Bowling Green State University is conducting fundamental research focused on controlling the optical and mechanical properties of materials by integrating transition metal ions within polymers. Polymers are widespread and have become an indispensable part of life. Different polymers have different properties and applications. Polymers incorporating photoactive metal ions allow the tuning of optical and mechanical properties of the polymers with light. These polymers can potentially be used as advanced healable or scratch-resistant coatings. They may also be patterned using light and used for biological applications such as tissue engineering. For her educational plan, Professor Ostrowski is working to promote community and student engagement by connecting chemistry to students' everyday lives through exploration of polymers from local plants. She is also developing low cost mobile-phone based technologies for do-it-yourself color measurements. These low cost technologies are useful tools for teaching students spectroscopy and photochemistry.
In more technical terms, Professor Ostrowski's goal is to control the mechanical properties of materials by controlling the metal coordination bonding interactions in the polymers. To enable the design of such materials, a deep understanding of the mechanisms involved in the metal-polymer assembly and reactivity is required. To develop these structure-function relationships, the dynamics of the metal-coordination interactions in the metallopolymer systems are varied in order to change the bulk properties (e.g. stiffness and elasticity, and photoreactivity). Previous work has focused on materials with ligands presenting specific coordination geometry, and metal ions that lack photochemical reactivity. This project focuses on developing materials with variable ligand binding geometries. Specific systems include 1) biocompatible polysaccharide polymers (e.g. alginate) and 2) model synthetic polymers containing tunable ligand groups-- both coordinated to a variety of transition metals such as iron, cobalt, copper and manganese in different oxidation states.
