CAREER:Direct Synthesis of Polymer Brushes using Organometallic Catalysts with Tethered Initiators

这项职业奖展示了一种新的合成方法，利用有机金属催化剂最近提供的独特潜力，创建新的聚合物刷子组合物和体系结构，以从系留引发剂生成各种刷子。这项工作的主要目的是通过事先确定接枝密度和链长来合成定义良好的球面和平面几何形状的硬质刷子，并利用这些受控的刷子结构来建立蠕虫状刷子的标度关系。PI将进一步利用活性有机金属聚合催化剂提供的多功能性来设计和合成嵌段共聚聚合物刷子，这种刷子将聚电解质块与疏水和不带电的亲水块结合在一起。使用多异氰酸酯作为模型半柔性聚合物也将导致手性异氰酸酯刷子的合成，这将被研究以确定链堆积对手性诱导的重要性。PI还将在复杂的几何形状上准备画笔，以探索这种方法在制备聚合物纳米结构中的应用。例如，聚合物将生长在中空圆柱体的内表面上，在外表面上形成预定的图案。教学活动将集中在一个研究小组的背景下指导本科生。还提出了一门新的课程--“教授科学的艺术”，这是一门跨学科课程，旨在服务于科学家和公民这两个群体。科学家是那些渴望在技术领域从事职业，需要充分掌握技术知识和技能的人：科学家学习是为了从事科学工作。另一方面，公民学习是为了了解科学。该课程将有两个目标：开发基础化学和材料科学领域的一系列讲座演示；以及为第二个新的讲座课程开发课程，名为“纸或塑料？日常生活中的材料选择”。本课程将作为几个外展活动的跳板。将鼓励学生在参观高中时展示示威活动。课程开发的材料也将成为提供给高中和大学教师的短期课程的基础。

This career award presents a new synthetic approach to creating new polymer brush compositions and architectures using the unique potential that organometallic catalysts have recently offered for generating wide varieties of brushes from tethered initiators. The primary object of this effort is to synthesize well-defined stiff brushes in spherical and planar geometries with a priori determination of grafting density and chain length and to exploit these controlled brush structures to establish, experimentally, the scaling relations for wormlike brushes. The PI will further capitalize on the versatility afforded by living organometallic polymerizations catalysts to design and synthesize block co-polymer brushes that combine polyelectrolyte blocks with hydrophobic and uncharged hydrophillic blocks. The use of polyisocyanates as model semiflexible polymers will also lead to the synthesis of chiral isocyanate brushes that will be studied to ascertain the importance of chain packing on chiral induction. The PI will also prepare brushes on complex geometries to probe the utility of this methodology in preparing polymeric nanostructures. For example, polymers will be grown on the interior surfaces of hollow cylinders in predetermined patters on external surfaces.Teaching activities will focus on mentoring undergraduates in the context of a research group. A new course is also proposed, "The Art of Teaching Science" an interdisciplinary course designed to serve two constituencies, those of the scientist and the citizen. The scientists are those who desire careers in technical fields and need thorough grounding in technical knowledge and skills: scientists are learning in order to do science. The citizen, on the other hand, studies to learn about science. The course will have two goals: development of a series of lecture demonstrations in the areas of elementary chemistry and materials science; and the development of a curriculum for a second new lecture course called "Paper or Plastic? Materials Choices in Everyday Life". This course will serve as a springboard for several outreach activities. Students will be encouraged to present the demonstrations in visits to high schools. The materials developed by the class will also form the basis for a short course to be offered to teachers at the high school and college level.