Robust, Efficient and Orthogonal Synthesis of Polymeric Materials

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In this project funded by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, Craig Hawker of the University of California at Santa Barbara will develop strategies for utilizing ketene chemistry as a synthetic tool for creating modular polymer and soft materials. The approach is to discover reaction conditions for the low temperature, quantitative generation of ketenes from Meldrum's acid and its derivatives. The precursor moieties would then be placed at the side chains, chain ends and interiors of polymers and on surfaces in order to explore the modular chemical functionalization of such substrates, exploiting the rich chemistry of ketenes. The broader impacts involve advancing teaching, training and learning through the development of a course on communication and presentation design, organizing an ACS Symposium on "click" chemistry approaches to polymer and materials synthesis, and funding local minority undergraduate students to attend the Dow Foundation Lecture Series.This work will expand the repertoire of chemistry that can be used to create new polymers and materials. The results of these studies could have many important long term impacts on a variety of applications and industries in which polymeric materials are important, including fine chemicals, coatings, electronics, and biotechnology.